A professional resume is key to your job search\u2014this you know. It must highlight your skills, experience, work history, and important accomplishments so that hiring managers can determine whether or not you\u2019re qualified for a job.<\/p>\n
What you might not know is that there are a few things that don\u2019t belong on your resume\u2014things that might not tank your chances at a job, but won\u2019t do you any favours, either.\u00a0So, what doesn\u2019t belong on a resume today?<\/p>\n
Put simply: A career objective is largely obsolete. \u201cIt tells an employer what you want from them, when the focus should really be on the employer\u2019s needs,\u201d says Wendy Enelow, co-author of Modernize Your Resume: Get Noticed…Get Hired<\/em>.<\/p>\n Furthermore, by including a career objective, \u201cyou\u2019re essentially pigeonholing yourself,\u201d says Alyssa Gelbard, president at global career consulting firm Point Road Group. \u201cIf you\u2019re applying for a job that doesn\u2019t exactly meet your objective, you\u2019re effectively telling the employer that this isn\u2019t the right job for you, so it can really limit your opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead of an objective, Enelow recommends beginning your resume with a career summary, where you highlight what you bring to the table and how you can add value to the company.<\/p>\n Due to privacy issues and the potential for identity theft if your resume somehow ends up in the wrong person\u2019s hands, Enelow doesn\u2019t recommend including your home address on your resume.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re applying for a local job, however, she advises including your city and state on your resume to show that you\u2019re a local candidate. But it\u2019s OK to leave off your location completely when applying for an out-of-town job, so that you don\u2019t inadvertently exclude yourself from consideration for the position.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re going to have a skills section on your resume, it should be focused on hard skills and competencies\u2014not soft skills, says Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter, executive resume writer and owner of coaching firm Career Trend. \u201cSoft skills are important, but I would weave them into the work experience portion,\u201d Barrett-Poindexter says. So where can you really lean in to your soft skills? Your cover letter.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t waste real estate by writing implied information on your resume such as contact info for references, or \u201creferences available upon request,\u201d says Scott Vedder, a Fortune 100 recruiter and author of Signs of a Great Resume. \u201cYou don\u2019t write \u2018interviews available upon request,\u2019 so why would you write \u2018references upon request\u2019?\u201d Hiring managers know you have references and will ask for them at the appropriate time.<\/p>\n Appearance counts, but so does readability. Skip any fancy or ultrastylised fonts and instead choose a font that is both professional and clean-looking. For example, Calibri and Verdana are standard fonts that will translate well from your computer to the receiver\u2019s.<\/p>\n Your resume\u2019s education section doesn\u2019t need to reach too far back. For example, \u201cif you have a college degree, it\u2019s inferred that you graduated from high school,\u201d Vedder says.<\/p>\n However, there are exceptions as to when you\u2019d want to highlight something from your high school years. \u201cSome job seekers had truly significant work experiences in high school,\u201d says Marinelli. \u201cIf you started a business when you were in high school, that\u2019s something you could put in work experience section.\u201d<\/p>\n Having a photo of yourself on your resume can potentially lead to discrimination, Barrett-Poindexter warns. It\u2019s better to post your photo on your social media profiles or personal website, where it\u2019s expected by recruiters and hiring managers.<\/p>\n One caveat: \u201cIf you\u2019re in an industry like broadcast journalism or performing arts, where your appearance is part of what you\u2019re selling, I\u2019d recommend including it on your resume,\u201d Enelow says. (For these types of positions, consult the job description to see if you\u2019re in fact required to submit a professional headshot or sizzle reel).<\/p>\n Many job seekers make the common mistake of using terms, job titles, or acronyms that are specific to their previous employer but aren\u2019t universal to the industry. This sort of jargon can be confusing, says Marinelli, even for skilled recruiters.<\/p>\n Your resume is your first opportunity to present yourself to an employer as a professional, so you better have a professional email address. If you\u2019re still using a high-school email address like KegStandChamp@whatever.com or OneDirectionLovr@whatever.com, it\u2019s time to create a new one.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Contributed by Monster.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What you leave off your resume can be just as important as what you include.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career","category-resume-and-cover-letter"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":651,"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644\/revisions\/651"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Your home address<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Soft skills in a skills section<\/strong><\/h5>\n
References<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Stylised fonts<\/strong><\/h5>\n
High school education<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Your photograph<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Company-specific jargon<\/strong><\/h5>\n
An unprofessional or outdated email address<\/strong><\/h5>\n