5 Things to Avoid Writing on a Resume

Your resume is your ticket to the interview. Recruiters get tons of resumes and they need to sift through them, devoting at most a couple of minutes for each resume. You need to make your resume crisp and to the point without any irrelevant material. Here are things to avoid on your resume.

1. References: This is an old relic that has no place in today’s workplace interviews. If you have references ready, you can always provide them at the interview. It is unlikely your references will add any value unless you have a letter from Larry Page writing about how awesome you are. Also, avoid writing “References available on request” at the bottom of your resume because it is presumed that you will. Don’t waste an extra line.

2. Salary Information: You should leave this till the interview. This information shouldn’t appear on a resume. You can always justify asking for a higher salary in an interview but on a resume, it is just a blanket statement that has a high potential for being rejected. Remember that there is much more to a job than just salary and you don’t want to be rejected just on this basis.

3. Technical Jargon: This should be avoided on the resume as far as possible because your resume is probably being vetted by someone from the HR who doesn’t have the technical background required to understand what you are talking about. Also, avoid using technical acronyms for the same reason in the some description. If possible, add it to a skills section at the bottom so recruiters can find you when searching resume databases like LinkedIn.

4. Vague Objective: An objective can be a powerful statement if you are sure of what you are looking for. However, if you are just being vague, and “looking for a challenging job to utilize your skills”, it is best not to include it in the resume at all. In fact, a lot of resume experts recommend doing away with the objective altogether irrespective of what you want to write in it because it seldom brings anything good but if your objective sounds bad, you are likely to be rejected. If you are unsure how sound your objective statement is, just get rid of it. Your resume will be just as good, if not better.

5. Personal Information: Of course you need to include your name, phone number and email id but don’t include too many other details. It might sound silly, but people have included details like their social security numbers on their resumes. Don’t do that! In addition, it is best to avoid showing any religious affiliations or other such details on your resume. It wouldn’t help but might hinder your job prospects.

These are just some of the things that you should avoid on your resume. Always remember to ask yourself whether something really adds value to describing you when you consider including something. Remember that a resume is a precious piece of real-estate that you need to sell yourself. Don’t sell yourself short by including irrelevant details that don’t add value.