If you have not gone job hunting in a while, chances are pretty good it has been a while since the last time you looked at your resume. It has probably been an even longer time since you last updated it. Perhaps you are updating your resume but you are following steps to updating your resume that you learned years ago.
Stop.
I can guarantee there are things you are doing wrong. More importantly, there are things you have put on your resume that you need to take off right now.
A professional resume is just once page in length. The older you get, the more difficult it is to cram all of those “important things” into your resume. The problem? Some of those things you consider to be “important” are not as important as you think they are.
I was responsible for…
Saying you were responsible for something you did on the job or responsible for something you accomplished is redundant. Obviously, you were responsible for it if it was your job. Saying something that is redundant in your resume takes up precious space and it more or less smacks the person reading the resume in the face. Do you really want to call the person reading your resume stupid?
Unprofessional Email Address
If you are going to include an email address on your resume, it should be a professional one. Your first and last name attached to gmail or yahoo is a good idea. Throw some numbers at the end if needed. EmilyLovesBobby4Every@emailprovider.com just isn’t very professional. The person reading your resume is going to have a very hard time taking you seriously.
Excessive School Information
If you got a degree in school, great. List it. Don’t go into details about the clubs you were in and the awards you won. The truth? No one cares about those things.
Your Address
Chances are pretty good you filled out an application in addition to your resume. Meaning, putting your address on the resume is unnecessary. You are going to end up putting your address on all sorts of different paperwork when you apply for this job. There is no reason to have it taking up space on your resume that could be used for something else.
Keep it Simple Stupid
Black and White is your friend. Fancy designs and curly fonts are not. You want to keep your resume simple and easy to rent. You do not want to put tons of effort into strange designs or weird formatting.
Image made by author (used resume icon from Wikipedia -modified in Photoshop).
DLWright
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Thanks DL, though I’m not going job hunting, I have to help others do it.
Share the article with your friends then. 🙂 It’s helpful for anyone job hunting.
These are great tips in writing a resume. I’ve had my time combing through hundreds if not thousands. One tip here that i love is getting rid of the unprofessional emails. I’ve seen emails that are too childish and some to vulgar to write here.
I have an email I use for just about anything and then another email that is my professional email. I think it is something all people who are serious about working online should invest in.
I have been an HR Manager as one of my online jobs. Read a lot of resumes and some of them were awful from the very first few lines that I never managed to read the whole of it. It does make a great impact if the resume is well written. It becomes more impressive when it is simple and straightforward.
Very nice tips for job hunters.
You mean to tell me all those extra curriculum activities that were supposed to look good on my resume, don’t?
yes i think it should be kept short and up to the point
5 Stars. I like the KISS part.
The email that I use on my resume is not my name. It’s mscfrk4eva, which is probably not a great idea now I see. Reason I keep using this one is because my CareerBuilder account, which I use to search for jobs, has this email. Perhaps the two are unrelated and I can use an email with my name on the resume and that won’t affect my CareerBuilder account. I am not really sure if changing my email will help me get a job and soon but I guess it’s worth a shot. Also, I’ve always thought having an address on a resume is required. But I read somewhere recently that it is not a good idea because if you live in one city and submit yourself for a job that’s in another city that may not look good. Also, I am not sure about experience. My resume is two pages and I am only 31. If I take some experience out then I will be left with employment gaps and perhaps a resume that is not as great experience wise. What do I do then?
Having 2 pages is all right. If the experiences you wrote aren’t redundant and show your skills, then keep them. I think what DLWright means when you state your job and then state again ordinary tasks that basically describes the job, it becomes redundant.
I will seriously consider some of them that you’ve mentioned because it really matters when somebody puts too much information regarding it’s school. Email address is a minor thing, but when it is very pathetic your boss shall don’t like it very much lolz.
Thank you for this good tips and really interesting enough to know and realized the important of how we should do in our resume. I learned from your post.