Ditch These 5 Things From Your Resume

Recruiters sort through stacks of resumes every day. They’re looking for the best candidate for the job. It’s a competitive arena, where your resume speaks for you.

If your resume stands out, you’ve got a shot at getting to the interview round. If your resume is slapped together and doesn’t capture a recruiter’s attention, it’ll end up in the trash bin faster than you can blink your eyes.

Your resume is one of the most important tools in the job search. It’s up to you to create and design a resume that will ultimately get you hired. Take five minutes and let’s look at your resume. Does it make you want to hire you? Are you really the best candidate for the job? Is your resume ultimately going to get you an invitation to the interview round? Maybe it’s time to tweak your resume.

Get Resume Tips That Work

First things first, if you’ve done anything cool at work, add it to your resume right now. Did you receive an award, change job titles, switch companies, earn a certification, join a professional organization, or perform well at work? Add it to your resume so you don’t forget.

Next, let’s delete a few things that you absolutely must ditch from your resume:

1. Personal Information – Resumes are professional documents not a spotlight on your personal life. Ditch the social security number, hair color, sex, current employer’s phone number, Instagram account, MySpace page, emergency contact details, etc. Recruiters don’t usually care about your hobbies, interests, or personal blogs. Keep it pro and to the point.
2. Unrelated Experience – No one cares that you used to sharpen ice skates two decade ago or that you painted houses during summer vacation. Keep your resume focused on experience that relates to the job you are applying for. This could be from prior work experience, volunteering, university studies or projects, or internships. If it doesn’t somehow relate to the job you’re applying for, forget it.
3. Lies – Whatever you do, don’t lie on your resume. Don’t make up a big time CEO job for a fake job or lie about earning a degree. It will come back to haunt you. Recruiters check things like this. It’s a small world and if you do make it to the interview round, questions about your stellar resume will come out. Then you’ll be labeled a liar and you’ll have a very hard time ever finding a job.
4. Objective Statement – For years, you’ve heard that an objective statement is mandatory as it helps to customize the resume. Unfortunately, most people fumble the objective statement by writing something so specific that it ruins their chances of getting a job. Just leave it off.
5. GPA – Unless you’re a new graduate with an outstanding GPA, don’t mention your GPA. Recruiters don’t care. They want to see your experience, not your cumulative GPA that includes courses that are completely unrelated to your future job.

Find more things to remove from your resume on the JobMonkey Blog.

We all want to find a job. One of the first steps in the job search is to get your resume dialed in. You need that thing to impress recruiters and leave them wanting to learn more about you.

Add a few things, ditch some other things, but make your resume do the work for you. Will your resume get you to the interview round? If not, keep tweaking. Or hire a resume writer to get the job done for you.