This article first appeared on Lifehacker and was written by Alan Henry.
When it comes to your resume, less is often more—but if you ask a dozen career counselors what they think you should include and what you should leave off, you'll get a dozen long-winded answers. Let's tackle some things we think you should definitely omit if you want to get your foot in the door.
Long, Unnecessary Objective Statements
The objective statement is dead. Seriously—if you're tweaking every copy of your resume for each job you're applying for, then your objective should be "To get this job," not some generic, vague statement about the general type of job or opportunity you want. Pull this off of your resume and use that space for more relevant details about your work experience or accomplishments that'll help you land the job you're actually applying for. Photo by marshillonline.
Unwanted Personal Details
Be careful including things like your marital or familial status, religion, or other personal details on your resume that the potential employer could get in trouble for asking you—they may shy away from your resume for fear that someone will assume they've asked for this information. However, if you worked for years at your local church or a charity doing relevant work for the job you're applying to, by all means you should keep it on your resume. Even if you volunteered and it's applicable, put it on there—the fact that it's applicable is more important than anything else.
Every Single Job You've Ever Had
If you're applying to be a systems analyst at a technology startup, they probably don't care that you were a delivery guy for Domino's when you were in college, unless that's somehow relevant to the work you'll be doing at the startup. Keep irrelevant details and jobs off of your resume—especially if they have no relevance to your entire field, much less the job at hand. To that point, while there's no hard and fast rule on how long your resume should be, try to keep your resume as compact as it needs to be. I know, you may be tired of hearing that line, but a good rule of thumb is to only include details that are important for your field, then do another pass and make sure your details are critical to the job you're applying to. If your resume is three or four pages long (or more—I saw a resume that was 18 pages once) you need to trim it.
Long Lists of Irrelevant "Special Skills"
While most employers definitely want to know you as a person and the things you enjoy in your off time, pull off all of those "special skills" that everyone has and just aren't important for your job. Things like "Microsoft Office (all ver.)" or "Windows and Mac Operating Systems" are not only implied for any job that requires use of a computer, they take up space you could use to make a real impact—or better yet, keep your resume trim and to the point. Granted, if you're applying to be an office assistant or typist, you may want to include your MS Office prowess—so it's not universally a bad idea. Just think in terms of what the hiring manager for your specific job wants to see.Photo by kafka4prez.
"References Available Upon Request"
Taking up a line on your resume with "references available upon request" is a waste of space. It started off as a way to imply that you had references who were willing to talk about you, but at this point it's so ubiquitous that everyone knows you have references, and that they're available if needed. Your hiring manager will ask for them if needed, or even ask for them up-front along with your resume. Again, don't waste space.
Lies
We shouldn't have to tell you this, but don't lie or grossly embellish on your resume. Everyone likes to put their best foot forward, but don't—especially if you're depending on references from one of those old jobs—put your references in the uncomfortable position of having to lie for you. Alternatively, you never know who's working behind the scenes at your potential employer—if you're applying to a company in the same field as your last job, it's fair to think someone there may have worked at one of your past employers, and may be familiar with your old job. Even worse, you really don't want to be called out on a skill your resume says you have but that you can't demonstrate.
Optional: Jobs You've Been Fired (Not Laid Off) From
This is a tricky one. Some people say you should always pull jobs where you were dismissed for some infraction or disciplinary action off of your resume, especially if you're worried you'll have to explain it in an interview, or hand over your old manager's name and risk the potential employer calling that past one. At the same time, you run the risk of leaving a huge gap in your employment history on your resume, and you'll have to explain that away too. You'll have to decide which option is best in your particular case, but whichever route you choose, make sure you have a rock-solid explanation ready. Normally we would suggest leaving the job on, and then if they want to know why you left, you can just point to differences with the management or something else relatively innocuous. You won't have to raise suspicion unless you specifically tell them not to contact that company. Photo by Charlotte West.
There are plenty of other, arguable things you should probably leave off of your resume as well, like fancy, unreadable designs and formatting (there's a line between form and function—stray too far to the former and you may get attention, but for all of the wrong reasons), super-old high school accomplishments that can't possibly be relevant anymore, and more, but they're more case-merit judgement calls than anything else.
Remember, when looking at your resume, think like the person hiring for the job and trim off anything that would be useless to them. Write them like a reader, and try not to use the same resume for every single job you apply for—consider your resume a template you should tweak for each job you really want. It's tempting to shovel the same resume into the furnace of huge job sites like Monster or Careerbuilder, but you'll get better results for your time spent if you take the time to customize it each time. If that sounds like a lot of work, you'd better start now. Good luck!
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