That’s the wind-up and here’s the pitch. In no particular order.

10. Objective – as my friend Tiffany Kuehl, Mega Recruiter and Staffing Leader says, “We already know what the objective is…to get the job.” Objective statements are always generic, boring and adds nothing to the resume or you as a candidate. Please kill them now!

9. References upon request. So the Hiring Manager says, “Everything looks good, I just need your references” and you say what? “No”? or “I’m sorry but I will not supply my references!” No, you’re going to give them up. You don’t need to put that on the resume because you and I both know that if you want the job, and they ask for them, you are going to give them your references. It’s obvious.

8. Adding the references to the end of your resume. Some of my clients have their references as part of the resume; they’re at the end or bottom portion. That needs to stop. Keep a copy in the cloud, on your computer or whatever but only supply when requested.

7. Graduation / Education / Certification dates. Age discrimination is real. Please don’t put any unnecessary dates on your resume – so no graduation dates unless you’ve graduated within 18 - 24 months.

6. Bold-texting and italics.  Bolding and italics should be used strategically to bring attention to a title or phrase, maybe a certain section. But if you BOLD the entire thing, then nothing is important. Don’t O.B. (over - bold)

5. Long hyperlinks. Links are fine but now you can customize them and make them short. Let’s be real, no one is going copy down and retype a link word for word, % sign, dashes and backslashes - its too time consuming.

4. The home address. Who mails anymore? If you are concerned about relocation, just put a city, state and zip code.

3. Old jobs. It’s 2014, I’m calling it out now; nothing before 1995. That’s 19 years worth, you really only need 10-12 years of solid history.

2. Quotes. No quotes! No religious quotes. No inspirational quotes! No recommendation quotes! Just no more quotes, please.

1. Lies. Historically, lying on your resume never ends up well at all.

 

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