Top 10 Things to Leave OFF Your Resume!

Your resume is your first impression, a sales brochure of your experience and an opportunity to showcase your accomplishments, skills and brand. You might think you are giving an employer many reasons to hire you; however, most hiring managers, HR representatives and recruiters are now looking for reasons to screen out applicants to generate a more manageable group of candidates to consider. You want to make sure you have the most valuable, impactful and appropriate information on your resume and eliminate unnecessary content and wording that clutters your document and makes it difficult for a reviewer to find the information relevant to the position you are applying for.

Here are the top 10 things to leave off your resume:

1. Photo. No matter how good looking you are, unless you are trying to become a model or actor, your photo should not be on your resume. While many companies outside the United States require a photograph, U.S. companies do not. This ensures the company is safely adhering to the Equal Employment Opportunity legislation by not making hiring decisions for discriminatory reasons.

2. Objective Statement. If you are applying for a position as a Data Analyst, then it is pretty much assumed that you will be “utilizing my skills and experience to obtain a position as a data analyst and to grow and develop within a company”. These types of objective statements are pointless generalizations that don’t do anything to distinguish you from other applicants. A high-quality summary outlining your key soft skills, general overview of your experience and a list of your hard skills that aligns with the position you are applying for is highly preferred.

3. Personal Pronouns. First-person language on a resume tends to be unengaging and not professional. Remove all pronouns, such as “I”, “My”, “Our”, etc. and focus on power verbs that have an action attached to it to bring more impact and value to your sentence: “Delivered”, “Spearheaded”, “Handled”, “Achieved”, “Innovated”.

4. High School. If you have a college degree or attended vocational training and obtained a certificate or credential, go ahead and remove that High School Diploma. It is assumed that any type of higher-education experience has come as a result of completing High School or a GED. Including that information doesn’t bring additional value and just takes up extra space.

5. GPA. Whether you got a 2.5, 3.4 or 4.0, your GPA from 10 years ago has no direct impact on your recent work experience. Include any awards or recognition you achieved as they have a more powerful impact: “Graduated with honors”, “magna cum laude” or “Dean’s List for 6 Semesters”.

6. Negative Wording. Your resume should be focused on your accomplishments, not on what you are in the process of achieving or have not completely finished. For example, if you took some college classes, but did not graduate to complete your degree, you don’t want to put “did not graduate”. Instead you can simply say “Courses Completed”.

7. Personal Information. Your resume should be describing your work experience, related skills, and the achievements in your career. If you are applying to a position as a Senior Account Executive, the hiring manager doesn’t need to know that you ran 5 marathons, excel at cooking gourmet meals or enjoy taking long walks in the evenings. Keep your resume focused on your career path. Also, never include other personal information, such as age, date of birth, race, sex, sexual orientation, political affiliation or religion.

8. References. References are usually asked for after one or two interviews or after there is significant interest in hiring you. Don’t waste premium space on your resume by listing out references and don’t include “References Available Upon Request.” It is assumed that if you are hired you will have to provide references or verification of previous employment.

9. Empty Adverbs. Successfully, Efficiently, Effectively, Very, Constantly – adverbs such as these tend to be empty. In other words, they don’t bring any additional value or meaning to a sentence and end up just being filler or clutter words. For example, in the sentence “Successfully led a team of 5 Sales Representatives in the Northwest region” the adverb successfully doesn’t provide any additional information. What made leading this team successful? What did successfully leading look like in your position? What makes you a more successful leader in comparison to someone else? Additionally, you probably wouldn’t include something that wasn’t successful on your resume; unless you can substantiate what made it Successful, Efficient or Effective, leave out the extra adverb.

10. Responsibilities. The most successful resumes are ones that have turned the mundane job responsibilities into achievements and accomplishments. “Responsible for”, “Accountable for”, or “Duties included” are just a few of the phrases that tend to be boring, overused and lack engagement to what you really accomplished in the position. Concisely highlight what you did well in the position and add in metrics if possible, to further substantiate your statement. For example, the statement “Responsible for creating online marketing campaigns to increase sales” is more impactful and results-focused if it read “Increased revenue 36% by establishing paid marketing channels, including Facebook Ads, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click advertising.”