A lot has been talked about what to include in a resume, but rarely does anybody talk about what not to put in it. So, here we present what is not known to you so far!
If you have repeatedly been told that your resume fails to impress, you may need to remove these things.
Here are the top 5 things to remove from your resume and perfect it to the point that it says “Hire me”.
1. Irrelevant Interests And Hobbies
Employers look for things to find out whether your candidature is suitable for the job opening or not.
Your experience, qualification or even soft skills matter a lot. But, do not include hobbies or interests that are irrelevant.
For instance, if you have hobbies like cycling, gardening, playing cricket etc., you need not include them in the resume.
Hiring managers have tons of resumes to review; they have to shortlist a few from them, so do not make your resume least interesting by mentioning things they have little to do with.
Contrary to this, if you have a hobby or interest related directly to the applied job, you should mention it.
For instance, you can mention I am fond of networking if you are going in for customer-care jobs or investing in cryptocurrencies if you have applied for finance-related jobs.
2. Your Headshots And Other Images
In a bid to make your resume stand out and look attractive, you tend to put headshots and images on your resume.
This should be avoided.
Crisp, clear and relevant information given in bulleted points for the ease of reading is more than enough.
Do not put your photograph unless you are applying for modelling or acting.
Also, do away with unnecessary images like charts, bar graphs etc.
These things have little to do with a resume.
Moreover, in summary, any type of graphic can send a wrong impression.
Nobody knows how hiring managers would perceive images on a resume, so it’s better to avoid them.
3. Many Soft skills
Soft skills are a good thing to be there on a resume.
Interviewers look for soft skills like time management, creativity, networking etc. but do not include too many soft skills on a resume.
If so, you may lose credibility and leave a wrong impression on interviewers. Also, do not just mention them on your resume instead you should try to demonstrate them because doing so captures more interest.
Hence instead of just mentioning that you are good at multi-tasking, you should mention something like this:
“Driven many projects to success from beginning to completion, which led to the increase in X”.
Also, many people do not know it, but personal pronouns like “I”, “me”, etc. should not be used.
This is so because it is your resume; hence, these pronouns are understood.
4. Personal Summary
Also known as a resume summary, the personal summary is a brief statement on the top of the resume.
Most candidates think that crafting a personal summary will catch the interviewer’s attention.
But, this does not happen in most of cases. Hiring managers read the entire resume from the beginning to the end.
To capture their attention, mentioning important things in bold and bulleted points is more important.
If you have any special qualification, training, skill, or certification that you think will be the most suitable for the job, you should mention it first.
5. Your Address to Correspond
Including correspondence, addresses used to be a norm once, but it can be skipped, especially if you want to relocate or apply for out-of-state jobs.
Some employers want to consider local candidates; hence, you should not mention it.
Hiring managers are not interested in knowing where you live.
Moreover, you can be at risk of your personal information being stolen.
So, it’s better to skip this.
Apart from that, do not mention an e-mail address from an outdated account like Hotmail or AOL.
Make a permanent account in Gmail and mention that in your resume.
Certain Other Things to Skip in Resume
Avoid these things in your resume also:
- Outdated/Irrelevant experience
- List of Job duties in your previous company (Instead of this, highlight your accomplishments)
- Reasons for leaving previous jobs
- Fillers like references available on request
- Keyword stuffing
- Contact info of previous supervisors
- Contact info of your current company’s manager
Also, do not put lies anywhere in your resume.
If you do so, you are likely to be caught. Avoid tiny texts, grammar errors, and passive language also.
What Exactly Do Hiring Managers Want in a Resume?
There are certain other things that employers want to see in a resume.
They want to check out whether the resume is:
Customized for their open position
It is accompanied by a well-written cover letter
Addressed to the recruiter (if possible by name)
Links to the online portfolio, if any.
Bottom Line
The first impression is the last, they say.
Your resume is the first impression that you can make or break.
It depends on the course of action you take.
Make your resume compelling and stand out from the crowd by putting just the writing things in it and avoiding the wrong ones.
