31 things you should remove from your resume immediately

31 things you should remove from your resume immediately31 things you should remove from your resume immediatelyEvery job application starts with a resume.Hiring managers gather resumes to determine when to interview promising candidates - and manyuse robots to eliminate bad ones before it even reaches a human being.Read mora15 schmelzglas etiquette rules every professional should knowIf you want to pass that test, you need to have the perfect resume to highlight your qualifications.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreHere are 31 things you shouldneverinclude on your resume.Jacquelyn Smith, Vivian Giang, and Natalie Walters contributed to earlier versions of this article.Dont put an objective on your resume.If you applied, its already obvious you want the job.The exception If youre in a unique situation, such as changing industries completely, it may be useful to include a brief su mmary.Leave irrelevant work experience outYes, you might have been the king of making milkshakes at the restaurant you worked for in high school. But unless you are planning on redeeming that title, its time to get rid of all that clutter.But as Alyssa Gelbard, career expert and founder of career-consulting firmResume Strategists, points out Past work experience that might bedrngnis appear to be directly relevant to the job at hand might show another dimension, depth, ability, or skill that actually is relevant or applicable.Only include this experience if it really showcases additional skills that can translate to the position youre applying for.You dont need to disclose your relationship status in a professional resume.Dont include your marital status, religious preference, or Social Security number.This might have been the standard in the past, but all of this information is now illegal for your employer to ask from you, so theres no need to include it.Dont put your hobbies on yo ur resume.Nobody cares.If its not relevant to the job youre applying for, its a waste of space and a waste of the companys time.Dont lie.ACareerBuilder survey asked 2,000 hiring managersfor memorable resume mistakes, and blatant lies were a popular choice. One candidate claimed to be the former CEO of the company to which he was applying, another claimed to be a Nobel Prize winner, and one more claimed he attended a college that didnt exist.Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer at CareerBuilder, says these lies may be misguided attempts to compensate for lacking 10o% of the qualifications specified in the job posting.But Haefner says candidates should concentrate on the skills they can offer, rather than the skills they cant offer.Hiring managers are more forgiving than job seekers may think, Haefner explains. About 42% of employers surveyed said they would consider a candidate who met only three out of five key qualifications for a specific role.Putting your age on your r esume could be a hindrance.If you dont want to be discriminated against for a position because of your age, its time to remove your graduation date, saysCatherine Jewell, author of New Resume, New Career.Anothersurprising wayyour resume could give away your age double spaces after a period.Dont be wordy.When you use a 0.5-inch margin and eight-point font in an effort to get everything to fit on one page, this is an epic fail, says J.T. ODonnell, a career and workplace expert, founder of career-advice siteCareerealism.com, and author of Careerealism The Smart Approach to a Satisfying Career.She recommends lots of white space and no more than a 0.8 margin.Dont disclose upcoming vacations on a resume.If you took time off to travel or raise a family, Gelbard doesnt recommend including that information on your resume. In some countries, it is acceptable to include this information, especially travel, but it is not appropriate to include that in the body of a resume in the US.Keep your re ferences separate.If your employers want to speak to your references, theyll ask you. Also, its better if you have a chance to tell your references ahead of time that a future employer might be calling.If you write references upon request at the bottom of your resume, youre merely wasting a valuable line, career coach Eli Amdur says.Remove inconsistent formatting.The format of your resume is just as important as its content, says Amanda Augustine, a career-advice expert and spokesperson forTopResume.She says the best format is the format that will make it easiest for the hiring manager to scan your resume and still be able to pick out your key qualifications and career goals.Once you pick a format, stick with it. If you write the day, month, and year for one date, then use that same format throughout the rest of the resume.Dont say the word IYour resume shouldnt include the words I, me, she, or my, says Tina Nicolai, executive career coach and founder ofResume Writers Ink.Dont write your resume in the third or first person. Its understood that everything on your resume is about you and your experiences.Refrain from using the present tense to talk about a past job.Never describe past work experience using the present tense. Only your current job should be written in the present tense, Gelbard says.Dont use a less-than-professional email address.If you still use an old email address, like BeerLover123gmail.com or CuteChick4lifeyahoo.com, its time to pick a new one.It only takes a minute or two, and its free.You dont need to put phone before listing your cell number.Amdur says there is no reason to put the word phone in front of the actual number.Its pretty silly. They know its your phone number. The same rule applies to email.Your resume is not the place for headers, footers, tables, images, or charts.These fancy embeddings will have hiring managers thinking, Could you not?While a well-formatted header and footer may look professional, and some cool tables, imag es, or charts may boost your credibility, they also confuse the applicant-tracking ordnungsprinzips that companies use nowadays,Augustine tells Business Insider.The system will react by scrambling up your resume and spitting out a poorly formatted one that may no longer include your header or charts. Even if you were an ideal candidate for the position, now the hiring manager has no way to contact you for an interview.Dont include your bosss name on yourresume.Dont include your boss name on yourresume unless youre OK with your potential employer contacting him or her. Even then, Gelbard says the only reason your boss name should be on your rsum is if the person is someone noteworthy, and if it would be really impressive.Leave out company-specific jargon.Companies often have their own internal names for things like customized software, technologies, and processes that are only known within that organization and not by those who work outside of it, Gelbard says. Be sure to exclude ter ms on your rsum that are known only to one specific organization.Social-media handles that are not related to the targeted position should be kept off your rsum.Links to your opinionated blogs, Pinterest page, or Instagram account have no geschftsleben taking up prime rsum real estate. Candidates who tend to think their personal social media sites are valuable are putting themselves at risk of landing in the no pile, Nicolai says.But youshouldlist relevant URLs, such as your LinkedIn page or any others that are professional and directly related to the position you are trying to acquire, she says.You dont need more than 15 years of experience.When you start including jobs from before 2000, you start to lose the hiring managers interest.Your most relevant experience should be from the past 15 years, so hiring managers only need to see that,Augustine says.On the same note, never include dates on education and certifications that are older than 15 years.The rsum is not the place to disc lose salary information.Some people include past hourly rates for jobs they held in college, Nicolai says. This information is completely unnecessary and may send the wrong message.Amy Hoover, president ofTalent Zoo, says you also shouldnt address your desired salary in a rsum. This document is intended to showcase your professional experience and skills. Salary comes later in the interview process.Dont use an old-fashioned font.Dont use Times New Roman and serif fonts, as theyre outdated and old-fashioned, Hoover says. Use a standard, sans-serif font like Arial.Also, be aware of the font size, she says. Your goal should be to make it look nice and sleek - but also easy to read.Dont use fonts that are hard to read.Curly-tailed fonts are also a turn-off, according to ODonnell. People try to make their rsum look classier with a fancy font, but studies show they are harder to read and the recruiter absorbs less about you.Try not to use buzzwords.CareerBuilder asked2,201 US hiring mana gers What rsum terms are the biggest turnoffs? They cited words and phrases such as, best of breed, go-getter, think outside the box, synergy, and people pleaser.Terms employersdolike to see on rsums include achieved, managed, resolved, and launched - but only if theyre used in moderation.Dont reveal your reasons for leaving your current company.Candidates often think, If I explain why I left the position on my rsum, maybe my chances will improve.Wrong, Nicolai says. Listing why you left is irrelevant on your rsum. Its not the time or place to bring up transitions from one company to the next.Use your interview to address this.Dont add your GPA.Once youre out of school, your grades arent so relevant.If youre a new college graduate and your GPA was a 3.8 or higher - its OK to leave it. But, if youre more than three years out of school, or if your GPA was lower than a 3.8, ditch it.You dont need to include an explanation of why you want the job.Thats what the cover letter and interv iews are forYour rsum is not the place to start explaining why youd be a great fit or why you want the job. Your skills and qualifications should be able to do that for you - and if they dont, then youre rsum is either in bad shape, or this isnt the right job for you.Keep photos of yourself off your rsum.This may become the norm at some point in the future, but its just weird - and tacky and distracting - for now.The rsum is the place for facts, not opinions.Dont try to sell yourself by using all sorts of subjective words to describe yourself, ODonnell says. Im an excellent communicator or highly organized and motivated are opinions of yourself and not necessarily the truth. Recruiters want facts only. Theyll decide if you are those things after they meet you, she says.Dont include short-term employment.Avoid including a job on your rsum if you only held the position for a short period of time, Gelbard says. You should especially avoid including jobs you were let go from or didnt like.Remove any unnecessarily fancy job titles.Being specific with your job title, and use the same description an employer would type, Ian Siegel, co-founder, and CEO of the employment marketplaceZipRecruitertoldBusiness Insider.Dont say youre a coding ninja - say youre a Python engineer, Siegel said.Delete your laundry list of daily tasks.Regurgitating what you do all day without describing the value you add to companies does not impress hiring managers, Celeste Joy Diaz, a recruiting manager at Amazon, toldBusiness Insider.Instead, Diaz suggests specifying with numbers and data how you moved your company forward. Using the winning phrase I created a solution for X amount of customers and it saved X amount of money, using X skill can help applicants stand out, Diaz said.This article first appeared on Business Insider.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 less ons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people