I’ve Helped People Find Jobs at Google, Facebook, and Uber—Here Are 5 Things I Never Want to See on a Resume
In my six years of recruiting experience, I have placed candidates at major companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft. But I didn’t always know what a good resume looked like.
in 2013, after Struggling to find work after college, I decided to hire a resume writer. It didn’t go as planned: $650 later, I had a six-page resume with less than two years of experience.
The turning point came when I walked into a local sports station with my new resume in hand, and the receptionist frankly asked me: “Can I you Want to read a six-page resume on top of what you wanted to do?”
That night, I went home and reworked everything myself. It was so consistent in interviewing me that my friends asked me to write my resume. When they all got jobs, my consulting service, Jupiter HR, was born.
One of the most common questions clients ask me is what I never want to see on a resume. Here I tell them:
1. A Personal Summary
These valuable resumes are a waste of real estate and usually contain information that recruiters will read your resume or other parts of your cover letter.
Recruiters and hiring managers skim or speed-read resumes. This means that the first part of your resume has a much bigger role in making a first impression than the second part of you, and you want to put your most important and influential qualifications above.
Instead of including a personal summary, use the top spot to jump straight to a list of your experience or your skills and certifications.
2. Stuffed Keywords
There is a misconception among job seekers that the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) auto-creates resumes without relevant keywords. As a result, some people awkwardly pack their resume with the wording of the job description.
but that’s not reality. An ATS is used to integrate with other company’s internal systems and to keep applications and reports organized. It is humans who reject. So include keywords from the job description only if they have the right purpose and align with your experience.
It’s easy to go overboard and put too many details into every role you play. but it is not necessary to include Every thing For example, in the tech world, anything you did more than three years ago is considered out of date. Pay more attention to your last one or two key positions and how the skills you used there will make you a good fit for the role. This could mean that the more recent jobs on your resume have more bullet points than the older ones, and that’s perfectly fine. You want someone’s first impression of you to be your skills – not your looks or your personal style. Avoid bias by leaving out your headshots or any graphics you design. Even a basic graph or line chart can work against you. You never know how someone will read a graphic representation of your skills. You can give someone the impression that you are more or less capable with a particular skill than you really are. Instead, write down your achievements in a list form and demonstrate how you have used them in your experience section. If you are applying for a creative role, there are other ways to show off your skills. Ninety-nine percent of resumes are viewed on a computer, so use that to your advantage. Link to your portfolio or blog in your header near your name and contact information. Although I see this most often with first-time job seekers, even career veterans make the mistake of adding irrelevant positions to their resumes to prove they are working. But your interviewer will verify your experience during the background check. If you have years of experience, there’s no need to list every job you’ve ever held. It only takes up precious space. Your resume should demonstrate that you are the right candidate for the specific job for which you are applying. So include only those experiences that are related to that job. The best way to make your resume impressive is to contextualize and support your achievements through numbers and percentages. Numbers allow you to paint a before and after narrative, clearly demonstrating the positive impact you have had on your work environment. Maybe you increased sales by 50% or increased email clickthrough rates by 500%. Either way, you made a real, measurable, positive impact. Germaine L. died is a career coach and founder of3. Old Experience
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