By: Andrew Fennell
Published: May 23, 2022
Reposted from FirstHand
A clear, concise resume is essential for landing interviews and job offers. Here are five things to remove from your resume to optimize your chances of taking the next step in your career.
1. Too many personal details
When putting together your resume, you don’t need to add more personal information than is necessary. Include the important details: your name, phone number, and email address are all mandatory, as these will allow the recruiter to contact you for an interview. Leave out information such as your address or date of birth, as this takes up unnecessary space and isn’t relevant for a recruiter at this stage of the application process.
Instead of taking up space on your resume with personal details, use the extra room to elaborate on some of your workplace skills or work experience. Plus, including unnecessary personal information on your resume can make it look slightly amateurish.
2. Buzzwords and cliches
There’s no faster way to make a recruiter roll their eyes than stuffing your resume with buzzwords and clichés like “great team player” or “self-starter.” Recruiters are looking for solid skills that can be demonstrated either through work experience or other extra-curricular activities; buzzwords and cliches are just empty claims. If you want your resume to stand out from the competition, you need to get imaginative with your language. Most importantly, if you claim to have a particular skill, you need to back up your claims with evidence.
Instead of describing yourself as a “team player,” give examples of times when you excelled within a team. Rather listing “self-motivated” as one of your core key skills, illustrate your self-motivation with concrete examples. Show, don’t tell. And always remember to match your resume’s skills to those in the job descriptions of the roles you are applying for.
