October 21, 2021

By Celeste Gable, Marketing Coordinator

Job seekers often do themselves a disservice when they send out resumes that include unrelated or confusing information. Hiring Managers don’t have the time or patience to sort through resumes having too much or inaccurate info.  Just stick to the basics and make sure you leave off these 7 things on your resume: 

Irrelevant Hobbies and Interests:  Love camping? Hiking? Fishing? Great, but unless the job you’re applying for is to be a park ranger, most hiring managers aren’t interested in how you spend you free time. When including hobbies on your resume, make sure its relevant to the industry you’re applying for.  

Too Many Soft Skills: Soft skills are a good thing, to a certain extent, but too many can cause the candidate to lose credibility. Including both hard and soft skills demonstrate tangible and intangible traits that can help the hiring manger or recruiter understand your work ethic. When including soft skills, make sure they’re demonstrated and not just stated.  

Headshot: There’s no reason to include a headshot on your resume. Some hiring managers even find it to be unprofessional. Instead, include your LinkedIn URL or a QR Code to your portfolio. Here you may have a picture of yourself.   

Personal Pronouns: When writing your resume, try to leave out personal pronouns like “I,”, “me,”, and “we.”. It’s your resume so it’s implied that everything is about you.  

The Wrong Kind of Email: Including your email is important when filling our contact information on your resume but using your personal email can be tricky. Its best to have a professional, simple email, that is easily associated with your name. Stay away from casual email addresses like so***********@ho*****.com that can be seen as inappropriate to unprofessional.  

Your Mailing Address: Including your mailing address used to be standard practice. Now, it's unnecessary information. If you’re applying for out-of-state jobs and looking to relocate, it might be best to leave out because some employers only want to consider local candidates. Instead indicate your plans of relocation within your contact information.  

Job Positions Older than 10-15 years: Unless you’re a recent graduate or a senior executive, you should include no more than 4 or 5 positions that span more than 10-15 years. The older the position, the less likely the hiring manager will care about it. Instead of filling your resumes with dozens of outdated, irrelevant positions, use that space to detail your most recent positions. Quality over quantity.  

When applying for positions, its best to tailor your resume to reflect the advertised role. If you’re applying for a tech-based job, it might be better to emphasize your skills with data learning programs. If applying for a communications role, highlight your soft skills and accomplishments. Writing a resume can be difficult when choosing what to include or not include, but use your best judgment. Quality over quantity wins every time.