Five Things NOT to Put on Your Resume
If you’re like one of the millions of Americans who is currently out of work, you’ve probably sent your fair share of job applications.
Chances are that you none of those job applications went anywhere, and now you’re wondering what the problem might be!
Why Does My Resume Stink?
If your resume is having issues, it is time for you to look into hiring a professional resume writer. A professional resume writer can help maximize your chances of getting your resume into the hands of a professional resume writer.
Professional resume writers do this by making sure your resume is compliant with modern applicant tracking systems. These systems filter through all the applications received by a company, and delete the ones that lack the keywords and key phrases hiring managers want to see.
They also do this by being professional writers who know what works on a resume and what doesn’t work. Here are some of the things that they know to omit from a resume.
Negative Things About Former Jobs/Bosses
There’s a good chance that you have some choice words that you wish you could say to some of your former employers. Take it from a writers: just because you wrote those words down rather than said them out loud doesn’t mean that they can’t do any damage.
Speaking ill about a former employer on a resume doesn’t speak well on your professionalism. Instead, it will make hiring managers think that you don’t play well with others, and that you are likely to talk bad about them behind their backs.
Be honest in your resume, but also be kind.
Big Walls of Text
Take a dollar bill out of your wallet and place it horizontally across a printed out version of your resume. Look to see if at any point when you move the bill up and down the page if there are any points where it hits a paragraph as tall as that dollar bill. If it does, you have some work to do.
The paragraph you landed on is far too big and needs to be edited down. Hiring managers are not going to read through a large wall of text, and will expect you to add breaking points and jumping-in points to make your resume reader-friendly to them.
Your Age
Sadly, ageism still exists in the workplace. As a result, tons of people don’t get a job just because a hiring manager thinks they are too young or too old. However, they might get the idea of how old you are when they see when you went to school, and how long you have been in the workforce, but you don’t need to spell it out for them.
Put down your most recent job experience and the name of the school you went too so that you do not age yourself for them.
Too Much Personal information
You don’t need your resume to explain your marital status, whether or not you have kids, any sort of health problems you faced or are currently facing, your political views, your personal views or anything that doesn’t pertain to your professional history.
Hiring managers want to hire people who know how to keep their work life and their personal life separate. They don’t want to hire someone with a bunch of things in their life that might keep them from their work, or someone that is going to get into an altercation with another person due to their personal beliefs.
Lies
This should go without saying but you can’t lie on your resume. Hiring managers are not stupid and they will smell out your lies and call you out on them. Even if you somehow get a job based on lies, those lies will be discovered soon after you start your job.
Honesty is the best policy, so make sure that your resume isn’t trying to pull a fast one on any hiring managers.