What Not to Include in Your Resume
by Staff Writer

A resume is not meant to be your life story. You do not have to expose your soul and share every detail of your work history. Your resume is your private sales catalog whose single purpose is to get you an interview. You should (almost) never include the following:

1.      Dates that reveal your age - Sad to say, but age discrimination is alive and well. If you are applying for a position that requires many years of experience, then your age may be an asset, otherwise don't take that chance.

 

2.      Hobbies - Showing too many can cause the employer to worry if they will interfere with your work. In addition the space use for discussing your hobbies could be better spent on discussing your skills.

 

3.      "References available upon request." - This is a waste of space. Most often when you fill out the job application there will be a place for you to list your references.

 

4.      Generic objectives - Your objective statement should be custom tailored to the position and the company you are applying for.

 

5.      GPA - Once you are more than a couple of years out of college your GPA becomes fairly irrelevant.

 

6.      Information that reveals your religion, gender, sexual preference, political party, or anything else remotely controversial.

 

7.      Experience - More than the job requires. If the situation only calls for 5 years of experience, your responsibility should be to make certain your resume shows 5 years of firm of experience.

 

8.      High School Information - If you've gone to college you almost never need to list your high school information.

 

Anything negative. This should go without saying but just in case, never put anything on your resume that is negative or shows you in a bad light.