July 8, 2010
Stuff You Do Not Include When Writing Your Resume
I will always remember sitting in on a hiring interview and being invited to ask one question of the applicant. I was momentarily shown the candidates resume, which rambled on about all sorts of personal issues including the fact that they didn’t smoke and they enjoyed using Facebook. At the top of the opening page was a picture of them next to a horse with a rosette in it’s bridle. My sole question was plain : who taught you to scribble a resume?
Writing the ideal resume for yourself is hard enough with excluding things that are going to alarm your possible employer. Considering that your resume will be scanned very quickly and will probably be one out of many, there are five important things that shouldn’t ever be included, so that you get a chance at that all important first interview. 5 items that head the ‘Don’t do this in your resume’ highlight reel.
1… I like to go horse riding and I am divorced, with a genuine interest in medieval thatching methods. Stupendously interesting as that may be, resumes aren’t the place for anything personal ( age,race,marital status etc ) or anything to do with your hobbies and / or interests even if the job in question is for a medieval thatcher! Rule number one isn’t to get personal but present yourself as a professional, qualified to do the job being considered. Education, qualifications and job history will point to your career objectives, not your personal life.
2…My life has been dedicated to ergonometrical constructivism. Amazing, whatever it is, but don’t use technical language that is’s going to bother the selection committee. What many applicants don’t understand is that many corporations hire a screening company to sort the primary batch of resumes and this selection has small connection with the particular job. They don’t know what your talking about and you’re going to appear pompous at best, although the career in question may include ergonometrically correct items being designed, for example. The recruiter may not be the actual staff manager of the company hiring!
It is often best not to use complex vocabulary in your resume and to use direct, action words that are relevant, unless you know for certain a technologically savvy person is going to be reading it.
3…and you can see all about me on my Facebook page. How extremely modern and ‘cool’ but how very ‘Do Not Include At Any Cost”. Don’t include your personal websites, blog, facebook or twitter account because they almost always contain inappropriate material and also no-one is going to spend the time to look. Lay out the topical information that constitutes your qualifications and do it in straightforward, direct terms that are simple to see at a peek. The one time a site link may be acceptable is if you are making an application for a web development position or you have your resume set out, professionally, on line as well as on paper and it has extra materials such as reference letters for instance. Continue reading Writing Your Resume – What NOT to Include!
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