A good number of resumes have landed on my desk throughout my career. “Interesting” is an understatement when describing things I’ve seen, which often leaves me asking the dreaded question … “Why is THAT on your resume?” I decided to share with you what “THAT” is, along with some alternatives on what you can do instead of doing “THAT”.
The dreaded “ESO” includes:
Labels like “Email”, “Address” and “Phone number”
You don’t need to tag these items in the resume title. I’m pretty sure the average person recognizes email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses. If more than one phone number is listed, label them to distinguish the “mobile” (or cell) number from the “home” number. I remember a resume that actually listed 2 cell numbers, just pick one.
Non-professional email addresses
I can’t help but laugh at some of the slogans of the very creative email address people. I remember seeing email addresses that made me think, “What does THAT mean?” For example, “[email protected]”, “[email protected]” and “[email protected]” to name a few. These highly creative email addresses were a distraction for me, albeit briefly, from the task at hand: assessing the candidate’s skills, qualifications, contributions, and accomplishments to determine if they can complement the needs of the team and the company. Although creativity is a great qualification for many jobs, save it for the next big project. Stick with the basic name [email protected] for your job search and resume.
“And the like” or “Etc.”
What exactly does this mean in terms of your qualifications for the work you are doing? Imagine you are the hiring manager and you are reading the following on a candidate’s resume:
“Execute strategies, etc.”
“Collaborate with team members and the like.”
“Managed programs, etc.”
“Increased profits and things like that.”
Doesn’t something seem to be missing from these statements? Substance: is what is missing. If your resume is your marketing document, tell recruiters exactly what “etc.” and “and the like” mean. How? First, remove the “filler words” [as we would label these in Toastmasters]. Second, use real facts from your experience that clearly illustrate your value. Leave nothing to the hiring manager’s imagination. Be specific, be detailed, be concise. Here’s an example: “I designed and executed profitable sales and marketing strategies, exceeding sales targets by 20%.” Now doesn’t this give a much better picture of your value?
“Great worker”
If you have “hard worker” on your resume, review it immediately. Instead, use your accomplishments and contributions to show hiring managers how hard you work through the impacts you’ve had and why they should hire you as a member of their team.
“[Credential] Candidate certification ”
If you have not yet taken or scheduled the certification exam, why is ESO on your resume? Instead, use your cover letter to indicate your plans to take the exam in the near future. If you are scheduled to take the exam, use your cover letter to mention that you are scheduled to take the exam and specify the date. This demonstrates your commitment to professional growth and a desire to be considered a certified expert who is prepared to make long-term contributions to business success.
“Computer knowledge”
Where do I start? There is too much technology to try to find out. Due to the wide range of programs, languages, systems, software, and hardware in the world, be specific when including your technical skills on your resume. For example, “Technical proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint” is a clear indication of your skill set.
University course numbers
Course numbers mean nothing to hiring managers and take up valuable space on your resume. For recent graduates with little or no relevant professional experience, it is highly recommended to list the name of completed college courses that are relevant to your target job. Just don’t use course numbers. Also, consider truncating some course titles that may be too long. For example, instead of listing “Introduction to Marketing,” please list Marketing or a higher-level marketing course, such as “Strategic Marketing,” which has much more impact.
Active links of copied and pasted text
Did you use a template but didn’t personalize the content? Did you actually copy and paste content from the template onto your resume? It is never recommended to copy and paste content from templates or any other source. But, if you do, be aware of the hot links that link back to the site you copied the content from. A general rule of thumb is not to copy or paste content from templates. Instead, use templates to guide your thought process, but create your own resume content that is relevant and specific to you.
A long paragraph of information
If your resume contains a paragraph with 15 lines of text in a job, you are hampering your marketing efforts. Think of a written advertisement or billboard at the train station or on the side of a bus. Will the ad with 15 lines of text or the ad with 3 short but very informative lines of text be more apt to read? If your answer is the latter, check your resume immediately. If you are wordy, have a professional resume writer renew your resume for you. Complete but concise is the key.
Your signature
Save your signature for the cover letter.
The resume serves as the promotional tool you use to market your qualifications to a potential employer. You can decide to work with a certified professional resume writer to develop this vital promotional tool, or you can decide to develop it on your own. Either way, the end goal is to capture a job interview using a concise, high-quality resume (and cover letter), packed with relevant keywords and validating content – the informational material.
Just stick with the most informative stuff and remove THOSE other things from your resume.
