When putting together a resume, a lot of questions are pondered. What should I include in my resume? Or more importantly, what should I leave out? During my career, I have come across a variety of resumes that contain a plethora of inaccurate, irrelevant, or flat out inappropriate information. Here are some resume dont’s:
Pictures
Leave pictures for your LinkedIn profile, there is no need for them on the actual resume. Whether you want to believe it or not, putting your picture on a resume can sometimes ruin your chances of receiving a call from a recruiter or hiring manager. A picture is worth a thousand words and in this case, those words are a distraction. You want the only emphasis to be on the content of the resume.
Age
Date of Birth
Marital Status
Hobbies
All of these things mentioned above are just unnecessary distractions on your resume. You want the hiring manager to focus on your education, skills, certifications, and experience. Not on the fact that you are married with nine children, have a dog, health issues, and love to ride your bike. Let’s stay focused on the things that will really make you appear unique, talented, and confident in your abilities.
Unrelated or terribly dated experience
Many clients have a hard time discerning which experience to actually include on the resume. Typically, you want to include work experience than is no older than 12 years. The reason being is, if you used a certain skill in a position 30 years ago, you’d have a hard time proving you are still an expert in that skill and up to date on all the current advancements anyway. If you are looking to become a Network Analyst due to your new IT degree, your experience as a waitress 20 years ago is probably not going to help you change careers. Giving your resume a focus is very important!