Over the years as a career professional, I've had clients tell me about some pretty bad resume writing advice they have received. Here are the top five pieces of advice that I believe all job seekers should ignore.
- List your most recent employment as current even if your employment has been terminated. This advice probably stems from the fact that people believe they are more desirable to an employer if they are currently employed. But employment dates can be checked with one phone call. Why jeopardize your credibility by showcasing inaccurate information? Honesty is still the best policy. A better strategy is to include a brief description of why you are no longer employed (i.e. downsizing, office closing, etc.)
- Omit graduation dates. Some people think that if you omit your graduation date you eliminate the chances of the reader figuring out your age. Maybe, but at the same time, leaving this information off might lead them to conclude that you are trying to hide your age and this will raise a red flag. So by leaving the dates off, you are actually calling more attention to the very thing you are trying to distract your reader from. Be transparent. Include graduation dates. If the reader truly has a bias against your candidacy because of your age, this probably isn't the right company for you. If you are concerned about potential age bias, research the companies that hire older workers and target those employers directly.
- Include all hobbies. A better strategy is to only include hobbies that have relevance to your job target. Most hiring authorities don't really care if you enjoy reading and cooking. But if you have a hobby that you are passionate about that correlates to the job you are applying for, then I say go for it.
- Be sure to keep your resume to one page. Whether your resume is one page or 30 pages, no one is actually reading it. They are scanning it to quickly determine your value proposition and potential fit within their organization. Focus on making that clear on either one or two pieces of paper. Include a headline that showcases your professional identity, a profile that communicates the big picture of what you can do for an employer, an areas of expertise section that details your skills, and themed competency categories that focus on your most important accomplishments.
- Eliminate jobs you held more than 15 years ago. Most hiring authorities and recruiters in particular will want to know the whole chronology. If you have an extensive career history, focus on the past 15 years of employment and create a separate, abbreviated category for your early experience. But don't act like that early part of your life never happened.
Barbara Safani is the owner of Career Solvers, www.careersolvers.com, and author of Happy About My Resume: 50 Tips For Building a Better Document to Secure a Brighter Future and #JOBSEARCHtweet.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Chris Finke says: (8:26AM on Feb 23rd 2010) Vote Up Vote DownReport3/3
Some advice I got once from a guy who handled filtering resumes at a largish tech company: (paraphrased)
"Keep your resume to one page. If you've done enough important things that your resume needs to be two pages, then you're well-known enough that you don't need to be sending out your resume."
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sam huston says: (8:16AM on Mar 1st 2010) Vote Up Vote DownReport0.5/3
It is also helpful if someone from ACORN, the NAACP or a Hispanic organization calls for you and sets up the interview. If you are applying for a Governement job don't bother if you are white. The government will only respond or hire from certain ZIP codes.
Wound Care says: (11:23AM on Jan 23rd 2012) Vote Up Vote DownReport2/5
I found your website perfect for my needs. It contains wonderful and helpful posts. I have read most of them and got a lot from them.
Wound Care
Barbara safani says: (9:48PM on Feb 23rd 2010) Vote Up Vote DownReport3/3
Chris,
It's true that some people prefer one page resumes...and just as many prefer a two page version. I think the important thing to remember is that all the information should be relevant, compelling, and whenever possible quantifiable. Thanks for commenting!
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Diane says: (8:55PM on Feb 28th 2010) Vote Up Vote DownReport2/5
I think those were helpful comments in the article. As I am job searching right now, they help add clarify other information I've received. I've heard both the one and two page resume issue, and I've gone with two. I have two because I need to use the key words of the the "want ad" to ensure that my resume makes it past the robot scanners to an actual person's desk.
The more important concept, regardless if it is one or two pages, is that they should be full pages.
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Pat says: (10:47PM on Feb 28th 2010) Vote Up Vote DownReport2/5
What a bunch of nonsense..stating a resume must be two "full" pages to be affective. The next thing you will say is to double-space like you are writing a high school term paper that must be two pages. The resume must be concise without concern of extra words to sell yourself for an interview opportunity. One or two pages, human resource professionals can sniff out the bull.
sam huston says: (8:20AM on Mar 1st 2010) Vote Up Vote DownReport0.5/3
The report left out that fact that you should use an address that has a ZIP code in a Black or Hispanic area. They are going to call you for an interview so just act straight. If you get the interview, correct the address and just say you just moved. The Federal Government will not respond if your ZIP code is not in a minoriety community. You cannot make this up.
Mandi P says: (11:28PM on Feb 28th 2010) Vote Up Vote DownReport2/5
While all of this information can be valid, the best advice is to go with your gut. Ageism, sexism and biast is alive and well in job hunting. Too many employers are on a super-duper power trip and don't care how quaified or educated you are, just that you BEG and grovel for employment. Best advice: Do your best, be as honest as possible and never lose hope because there is one employer ut there that will hire you for your skills more than how you look, how old you are or whether you're their next slave to make them feel superior.
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sam huston says: (8:26AM on Mar 1st 2010) Vote Up Vote DownReport0.5/3
The Eric Holder Justice (snic) Department are terrorizing employers who do not hire from Black and Tan communities. To play it safe and avoid expensive Justice Department letigation, they are using ZIP codes to hire Blacks and Hispanics. If you do not have the right ZIP code you will not be considered. Choose a ZIP code in a minoriety community, you can always change your address when you get the job if you get past the interview face check.
Jon Jacobs says: (9:20AM on Mar 1st 2010) Vote Up Vote DownReport2.5/3
There is some good advice here. But with all due respect, your views on points 2 and 5 will hurt a job-seeker more often than they'll help. So will the final sentence of point 1.
Yes, seeking to sidestep age discrimination by omitting graduation dates or superfluous past jobs (and by definition, any skills you last utilized more than 15 years ago are superfluous) might make some hiring managers suspicious. But which woud you rather do: Let -some- screeners suspect you're too old for the job? Or let -all- screeners -know- you're too old.... which is what happens when you list graduation dates. The ones who'd screen you out for omitting the dates are the same ones who would have screened you out for the dates you would have listed. So on balance, omitting the dates may help you vault the initial algorithm-based screen in some percentage of cases, while it won't cost you any chances you would have gotten if you'd listed them.
Same goes for listing ancient jobs that can't possibly help (but can hurt) your shot at a present opening.
There is a fundamental principle at work that links these two items as well as the other radioactive nugget of advice I noted (the final sentence in point 1). The principle is this: Never state any negative information on a resume.
A resume is a marketing document. It isn't your biography (not even your career biography), nor is it an investment prospectus or any other sort of "full-disclosure" document. A resume has one overweening purpose: To get you past the ATS (or in vanishingly rare cases, past a human screener) so you'll be offered an initial interview.
Candidates do have certain obligations to disclose negative information during an interview process - for instance, if you have a criminal conviction, you must clear the air before an offer is imminent, because if they discover it in a background or reference check (i.e., after you've advanced far into their process), that will be too late to explain - you'll be viewed as someone with something to hide, and eliminated. But a resume (or first interview) is the wrong place to bring it up. That's a no-brainer.
Similarly, you can't expect to conceal your age from a prospective employer very long. But what's the sense in excluding yourself from so much as an initial interview, by confessing what amounts to negative information ("extra" years of experience, and/or extra years of life) in your resume? If you get in the door, you'll at least have a chance to defuse any biases the hiring manager may hold about older candidates. I can't believe such biases are -always- intractable and absolute; there must be some instances where a stellar background and an interview performance charged with energy, emphathy, insight and passion, will win over a manager who'd initially leaned toward a more youthful profile.
For similar reasons, I think it's silly to include in your resume an explanation of why you left your last job. The question is sure to arise in an interview (if you get one), and that's the place to answer it. Explaining why you're no longer employed on a resume won't gain any points; all it does is waste valuable resume space (in a prominent position near the top of the reverse-chronological listing).
Of course, if your last job ended more than 2 or 3 months ago you'll need to fill that valuable current-employment hole at the top of your "Professional History" section with something, anything. But as Barbara says, "stretching" the timing of the job you no longer have to cover over that gap is dishonest and could prove suicidal. Instead, what you need to do is list something honest as your current employment. Generally, that means volunteer work and/or project work in your field. It's okay to list projects you weren't paid for; if asked for details, say the client's identity is confidential. If you're asked about your earnings from the projects at all, it will likely come late in the process, when the prospective employer is already on the verge of extending an offer.
That's how you move your resume beyond begging the question, "Why isn't she still at her last job?" You don't do it by stating an explicit answer to the question within the resume.
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JA says: (11:35AM on Mar 1st 2010) Vote Up Vote DownReport2/5
I agree totally, Jon, with all your points. After working with many job seekers, we know what works or what doesn't. It may be different in different parts of the country, but candidates must be honest, tell enough to create interest, and not answer every question upfront on the resume.
Shekia Taylor says: (3:31PM on Mar 6th 2012) Vote Up Vote DownReport2/5
I must concure with Jon! Upon reading this article the same pieces of advice (numbers 2, 5 and the end of point 1) also concerned me. If anyone reading this blog need assistance with editing a resume please visit www.rightfitresumes.com/atlanta-resume-writing-service in atlanta or www.rightfitresumes.com nation wide.
Jnet says: (2:05AM on Mar 1st 2010) Vote Up Vote DownReport2.5/3
I was employment manager for a large hospital where we typically had a hundred or more job openings, so I've read quite a few resumes. It doesn't matter whether your resume is one page, two pages, or somewhere in between as long as it's concise and accurate. There's nothing magic about writing a resume; but always be honest. A man applied for a managerial position. Our description asked for a Bachelor's degree, but it wouldn't have been absolutely necessary. The applicant had not graduated, but his resume said he had. He would have been perfect for the job, but he had lied to us. We were disappointed and so was he, but we couldn't consider a dishonest person.
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Bob says: (8:32AM on Mar 1st 2010) Vote Up Vote DownReport2/5
I would disagree. Your resume should be outstanding and stand above others. It should bring to life would you have to offer. HR departments, recruiters and employers in general are receiving hundreds if not thousands of resumes for a single opportunity. If you expect to tell someone your entire life history in multiple pages, you're allowing quite often, a low level HR person to make some decisions about you before you ever get a chance to explain yourself to a decision maker. Less is more.
sam huston says: (8:32AM on Mar 1st 2010) Vote Up Vote DownReport0.5/3
INTERVIEWERS ARE RUDE AND LIERS.
That is good advice but don't you often lie to your applicants and reach out to Blacks and Tans. The purpose of the reseme is to get an interview at least that is what we are told. Would you reject an applicant because they used a ZIP code from a minoriety community?
trailswest says: (1:50AM on Mar 1st 2010) Vote Up Vote DownReport2.5/3
Wrong in one big respect, very big: they are NOT reading your resume to "determine your value proposition and potential fit within the organization" (ugh-"value proposition")...they are reading it to ELIMINATE YOU from the stack of resumes they are scanning for about 18 seconds each! And dear readers, that is why you must work and re-work your resume to ensure anything that would eliminate you quicker is considered and covered properly...without lying.
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BC says: (1:54AM on Mar 1st 2010) Vote Up Vote DownReport2.5/3
I hire people for positions that I supervise. I had one applicant provide a "resume" that listed his pervious employer and what the companies did. I didn't contact him for an interview. Why? He told me what his emloyer did. NOT what he did for his employer. It's fine to state, briefly, what the employer does. NOT more than one sentence. But you better tell me about YOU and what YOU did for your employer. The last position that I hired had more than 60 applicants and I am not going to waste my time with such nonsense.
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sam huston says: (8:11AM on Mar 1st 2010) Vote Up Vote DownReport0.5/3
I have found that if you are a white person, the interviewer if you get that far will attempt to use everything against you. Either you are too experienced, too baby boomer or not diverse enough. You are over educated, under educated or lack diversity. The Federal Government will only hire Blacks and Tans from certain ZIP codes.
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ibstilyn says: (8:35AM on Mar 1st 2010) Vote Up Vote DownReport3/3
Sam--STFU...quit spamming the board with your rascist right wing drivel----no wonder you are looking for work
Shona says: (12:04PM on Mar 1st 2010) Vote Up Vote DownReport3/3
Are Blacks and Tans the reason why you can't spell? It's "resume" not "reseme" and it's "liars" not "liers." That is why your dumb a$$ can't get a job.
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