You’ve done your research on what to include in your resume and have found plenty of helpful information to guide you. You’re off to a great start and are feeling confident! However, it’s equally important to know what NOT to include in your resume.
First impressions count and even minor mistakes may distract hiring managers from the other winning content in your resume. Especially when they’re comparing your application with potentially hundreds of other candidates’.
To get through to the next stage, you’ll need to tailor your resume to the role and the company, ensuring your enthusiasm shines through. Your resume is the most powerful tool to get yourself through to the interview, so it’s worth spending a solid amount of time perfecting it.
Yet, just because you put time and effort into your resume, you don’t want to include absolutely everything about yourself. You’ll end up with pages and pages! Relevant details should be carefully pinpointed because they enhance your application. To help you avoid any potential landmines, here’s what NOT to include in your resume.
Irrelevant Personal Details
Consider the position that you’re applying for and how your hobbies and achievements may relate to it. If you want to work in the sales industry, for example, it could be beneficial to note any sporting achievements which reflect how you respond well to challenges.
Aside from these, your future employer isn’t interested in your personal details. Information about your age, race or gender doesn’t matter at this stage in the process. What’s more, these could contribute to hiring bias; deterring a company from interviewing you. For the same reason, don’t add any photos of yourself!
Furthermore, you should never include your private information, such as a social security number or bank details. Nowadays, an address is usually the only requirement, and you should be wary of companies that ask for anything more.
Irrelevant Work Experience
You don’t need to include every job you’ve ever had in your resume. Stick to the most recent or relevant positions, or ones you’ve held for a significant period of time. Unless you have limited experience of course, in which case an internship or summer job may be your most significant piece of experience.
Just be sure to link any experience back to the role you’re applying for. If your previous role was as a cashier, for example, think about what transferable skills this has given you.
If you’re applying for a job in finance, you could mention how you’re confident with basic math. Or, if you’re looking for a job in sales, you could talk about your strong verbal communication skills.
Similarly, only include your highest level of education. You should only mention junior or high school education on our resume if this is your highest degree; or if you’re still in this level of education.
Unexplained Gaps in Employment
While you should only include the most relevant work history in your resume, it raises questions if you have unexplained gaps in your employment history. Especially if it’s a long period of time.
If you’re reluctant to go into detail about these mystery periods in your life, simply write a line or so to alleviate recruiters’ doubts. Most of the time, they won’t bother to contact you to find out and your resume will be headed straight for the trash.
Waffle and Buzzwords
Recruiters don’t have time to waste on candidates who overuse buzzwords and clichés. When you stuff your resume full of these tiresome phrases, the likelihood is that it will look the same as lots of other candidates. Therefore, they add no value.
For example, don’t just say that you’re a ‘hard-working and enthusiastic team member’. Provide an example of when you’ve done this, with proven benefit to your team. Think of your resume as a newspaper story; you want the headline to capture the recruiter’s attention instantly.
Moreover, avoid jargon and acronyms when possible. While it’s great to showcase your technical expertise, HR teams are usually the first to read your resume. If they can’t decipher this language, your resume may not make it to the next stage of the interview process.
Keep it to Two Pages Max
Unless you’re applying to an academic or super-technical job post, your resume should be no more than two pages long. Edit and adapt your resume to contain the most pertinent information to the job role and you’ll easily be able to achieve this length.
Indeed, cramming in all your qualifications and information won’t add value to your resume. Nor will exaggerating your achievements to make them seem more impressive, as recruiters have enough experience to see straight through this!
Analyse key points from the job description and decide what example you’re going to give to match that requirement. Your final goal should be a resume which is two pages in length, only containing the most vital information about you.
Don’t be tempted to shrink the font size to make it fit either – it’s the oldest trick in the book!
Don’t Use a Bad Format
Resumes these days are read on-screen and are rarely ever printed, so it’s important that you use templates which are easy to read on a screen. Although many resumes are saved as Word documents, you can’t assume that the recruiter will have the same version as you.
It’s safer to upload your resume as a PDF document to prevent the format of your resume from jumping around on the page. This also means you need to ensure that your resume still looks good even with the format stripped away.
Therefore, opt for plain fonts in easily readable sizes and avoid the use of colour and any tables or boxes. The hiring manager will want the information to be clearly presentable and not obscured by a bad layout.
What Do Employers Want You to Include in Your Resume?
You’ll have the best chance of getting a job interview if you take the time to be strict with yourself. When you spend a long time writing a resume, you might not want to delete half of it afterwards.
However, by focussing on what to include in your resume, this will help you put forward only the very best parts; and hopefully get you to the next stage of the application process!
