You may feel as if you have to cram every last detail of your professional life into a one-page resume. However, this simply isn't the case as a good resume is all quality over quantity. Discover tips to avoid submitting a bad resume that can ruin your job search.
"References Available Upon Request"
Just about every HR staffer, hiring manager and recruiter needs to see your references. A bad resume wastes space with this phrase as you should already have a separate list of references. These references include past supervisors and colleagues who can vouch for your work ethic, experience and qualifications.
Long Blocks of Text
Instead of having one long paragraph of text, break up the block into easy-to-read bullet points. The person reading the resume finds your most important information more readily when there is plenty of white space between sentences.
Too Much Experience
A bad resume tries to cram in every single job you've ever had in your life. Companies are much more interested in your most recent and most relevant experience. If you're applying for a sales manager job at age 35, and worked for three months at a fast food place when you were 15, you can leave off the first job you had as a teenager.
Irrelevant Experience
Keep your experience relevant to the position at hand, even if you held a recent job that differs from the scope of the one for which you're applying. List the high-quality jobs where you earned skills, qualifications and experiences that relate to the current job.
Objective Statement
A bad resume has an objective section even though the objective of a resume is fairly clear: you're on a job search and want a job. Traditionally, candidates listed an objective as the first section of a resume underneath the contact information. Instead, summarize a career bio with four to five bullet points of your highest-level professional traits that highlight why your qualifications are well-suited to this position.
Personal Information
Leave off any personal information from your resume. If your future employer wants to discuss what you do with your time off, your family or personal interests, those topics usually come up in an interview. You might include a hobby if it proves you earned experience relevant to the position.
Salary History
Salary history is often included with a bad resume. However, this topic rarely surfaces, even during salary negotiations. You don't have to talk about how much you made previously to present your case for the salary you want. Research current salary trends in your field to enter into negotiations with a stronger position as you try to obtain the salary you deserve.
The hallmark of a bad resume is that it tries to do too much with very little space on the page. Instead, a great resume offers an employer a snapshot of your professional life, and then the real conversation happens during the interview when the employer asks for more details.
Photo courtesy of Julie Walraven at Flickr.com
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