Your resume is your calling card. It’s how you sell yourself, how you capture the attention of the hiring manager. So, it’s important to make every word count. To make sure of this, there are certain things you need to avoid on your resume. They either aren’t needed, or may actually work to your disadvantage. Here are a few.
1. Personal information
This includes information such as your marital status, religion, or ethnic background. Including this data will probably eliminate you from consideration. That’s because it is illegal to base a hiring decision on any of these background factors, so a hiring manager will not want to take a chance that these will enter into his or her decision.
2. Age
Laws against discrimination cover age as well, so you want to make sure you are not giving your age away on your resume. This may also lead to your elimination.
3. Mailing address
Because communication is all online today, a mailing address is not needed.
4. Improper email address
You want to make sure your email address is not in poor taste. It should be professional.
5. Photos, images, charts, graphs
These all should be avoided on a resume. They will take up valuable space that could be better used providing information about yourself. Also, they will cause problems with applicant tracking systems, which many companies are now using.
6. Unusual fonts
When writing a resume, stick to standard fonts, such as Arial, Garamond, Georgia, Helvetica or Calibri
7. Grammar and spelling errors
You need to proofread your resume carefully to make sure there are no grammar or spelling errors. Carelessness like this does not reflect well on your work ethic or attention to detail and could eliminate you from consideration.
8. Different formats
You need to make sure your resume is formatted the same throughout the entire document. Avoid simply cutting and pasting from other documents.
9. Different tenses
Verb tense matters. If you mix them up, you may confuse the hiring manager about the time frame of your former employment. For example, if you are writing about a job you have now, you should use the present tense, and past tense for jobs you held in the past.
10. Irrelevant work history
Jobs you held more than 15 years ago generally do not have to be included on the resume. Also, positions that are unrelated to the job for which you are applying should not be included.
11. Hobbies or interests
Unless these are directly related to the job you are applying for, you should not include them on the resume.
If you are looking to make a connection with a new job, Winston Resources can offer you the help and guidance you won’t find anywhere else. We get results, Give us a call today.
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