It’s easy to mass apply to job openings online, but if you don’t have a solid resume, you’re not making the most of your efforts.
One specific detail is cause for immediate rejection, says Stacie Haller, chief career advisor at Resume Builder.
“If I see a picture, that’s going in the no pile,” says Haller, who has over 30 years of staffing and recruiting experience.
Including a headshot on your resume invites ageism and snap judgments based on appearance, she says, and indicates “that person is out of touch with how we do things today.”
Recruiters are critical of anything that feels out of date, Haller says, and some details could add bias to the hiring process. Here are other details that should be scrubbed from your resume, according to Haller:
An objective: Including an objective on a resume is a waste of space when recruiters are looking at your document for roughly 6 seconds or less, Haller says. The purpose of your resume should be clear — to provide your qualifications for a stated job — so you can save this point for a cover letter.A street address: Including your specific home address and ZIP code could lead to discrimination if there are socioeconomic differences by neighborhood, Haller says. Plus, if you don’t live where the business is based, a hiring manager could de-prioritize you as a candidate knowing you’d require relocation. Instead, just include your city and state. And if you’re open to remote roles, you can note that in your location as well, Haller adds.An AOL email address: It’s been years since the AOL email domain fell out of favor, so using it can make it seem like you’re not up to date with technology. Opt for a free Gmail account instead, Haller says.
How to format your resume
Another piece of resume advice: The simpler, the better.
Don’t add creativity if it comes at the cost of readability, Haller says. Keep your text in one column with clear sections and short bullets, which is better for both human readers and teams that leverage AI readers.
Recent grads without professional experience in their field can lead with their education section at the top.
Once you have a year or two in the field, put your professional experience section first, listed in reverse-chronological order of your jobs. Then each section should list the bullets of your accomplishments and tasks by what’s most relevant to the job you’re applying for.
Keep a separate skills section to list all the technical skills and certifications you have under your belt — again, it can be worthwhile to order them by what’s most critical in the new role you’re up for.
Stick to a one-page resume if you’re early-career in your 20s, Haller says, adding that one to two pages will work for most people throughout their entire careers.
Tenured workers with 20-plus years of experience can likely stick to listing their work highlights from the last decade, Haller says. “Nobody is hiring someone for what they did 20 years ago. It might be part of your story and on there without dates, and for CEOs it could be important,” but generally, you can edit some of those selections down.
C-suite leaders, meanwhile, might stretch their resumes to three or four pages.
How to tailor your resume for each job
Finally, hiring experts often recommend tailoring your resume for every job you apply for. Haller agrees, but with a caveat: “Everyone should have a good, basic, compelling resume that you use 90% of the time,” she says. For the other 10%, you can reshuffle the bullet points under your experience to match the needs of the role you’re applying to.
It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes, Haller says.
Every job seeker should have “one compelling personal template that you must tweak,” she says, “but it shouldn’t take a lot of tweaking.”
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