Writing a resume is a lot of work. At the end of the day, that piece of paper is what defines everything about you, your work, and what helps you land a job. So why would we take anything off of it? Restraint makes for a well-written and verbalized resume that hiring managers are eager to read. Here is a list of the top 5 things to leave off of your resume in order to get attention from the hiring manager.
1) Information About Yourself That Has Nothing To Do With Your Work
Trying to include your personality on a resume is something that will unfortunately never be achieved. That has to be done in person once you land an interview. A few things you think may set you apart from your competition actually hinder you because the hiring manager only spends 6 seconds looking at your resume before deciding to read more or throw it out. If you cram in information that is non-essential, they will not continue reading. These include what hobbies and interest you have, what clubs you are a part of (unless they are to do with work), what High School you went to, your references names and contact information, and your photo.
2) Creative Design
Being creative is always a great quality, but when it comes to your resume, it’s better to be more professional and clear than creative and confusing. Adding fonts that are not legible will be instantly thrown away as well as adding color or bolding to keywords so they stand out. You may think that is helpful but it makes it seem too forward. Just by adding keywords based off of the job descriptions, the hiring managers will know what to look for and spot them without your color helping.
3) Functional Resume
This is when you write your resume based off your skill set rather than your job. Writing a functional resume does not indicate what you did at a certain job and when you did it, it merely states your skill set in ‘management’ or ‘analysis’, or whatever it may be. Managers do not want to see this because they will have no idea when you last used these skills and how you used them. Instead, write your resume in chronological job order starting with your most recent job and move backwards. List what you did at each job and in chronological order.
4) Wordy and Subjective Descriptions
When you describe what your responsibilities were for each job, do not write a paragraph or novel about what you did, instead try to highlight what you did with bullet points that are straight to the point such as, ‘Created and maintained Excel spreadsheets to track incoming and outgoing products’. This is a clear sentence as to what you did rather than, ‘I worked with Excel to create spreadsheets which I used to manage the incoming and outgoing products of the company, I also maintained them on a daily basis to ensure they were up to date.’ Eliminate unnecessary words and start with what you did – you ‘created’ the spreadsheet.
5) Objective Statement
Writing an objective for what you are looking for and why actually seems like it would be helpful for the manager to read and then use that to decide if they want to keep reading, but unfortunately that is not the truth. Instead, hiring managers see that as useless because they will only use your skill set to determine if you are right for the job. You may be looking for a management position but if you have never managed anyone before it won’t matter what your objective says. Keep your resume straight forward and simple by listing your skills and then your chronological job history with enough keywords to catch the manager’s eye.
