Things You Should Leave Off of Your Resume

August 1, 2012

 

When hiring managers look at resumes, there is certain information they expect to find, such as experience, skills and education. But many people go a step or two too far and include include items on their resumes that don’t need to be there, and in fact may turn off potential employers. Here are a few of them.

Unnecessary education information 
You should only list your most recent degree/certificate. If you have a bachelor’s degree, you don’t need to list your high school. Also, unless you’re seeking an internship or your first job after college, your GPA doesn’t need to be listed. And you definitely don’t need to list your junior high or elementary school. (Yes, it’s been done!)

Irrelevant personal information
Lists of your hobbies and personal achievements, unless they are somehow directly related to the position you’re seeking, don’t need to be included on your resume. If
you’re applying for a position as an accountant, the hiring manager doesn’t need to know that you enjoy building model trains. And even though you and your parents were very proud, nobody is interested in the fact that you were prom queen your senior year of high school. Such information takes up valuable real estate on your resume and distracts the hiring manager from your relevant experience and work-related achievements.

An objective
Objective sections on resumes are outdated. The reason? Your objective statement is pretty much just a fancy way of saying “I want a job.” Which is something that an employer will assume by the fact that you submitted a resume. Instead an objective section at the top of your resume, use a summary section that provides an at-a-glance look at your experience, skills and key achievements.