Less is more: What should you exclude from your resume?

Making a good impression – as a professional job seeker – often starts with a simple (or maybe not so simple) piece of paper. Not so simple – because books have been written about what to include in your resume, websites exist devoted to resume style and format, videos filmed for YouTube can be found suggesting magic tricks or golden rules leading to perfect resume content.

But here’s a simple truth – sometimes, it’s not what you put in – it’s what you leave out!

Honesty, of course, with resumes as with life, is always the best policy. But with resumes, no employer expects that prospects are spilling their guts, like penitents in a confessional – employers understand that a resume is more like an advertisement, with a sprinkling of spin, a pinch of puffery, and, when it comes to leaving things out, a dash of diversion.

You’re building the best version of you – so you don’t want crossbeams weakened by termites.

Okay, enough with the analogies – sometimes blog posts can be too clever, and the same goes for resumes. Keep it straightforward.

But what about the specifics? Let’s start with the obvious – old news is, well, old news. Captain of the high school chess club? Now that you’re forty-three years old, no one cares.

Social media? OMG, citations to Facebook or Instagram are deadly! LinkedIn is okay, but make sure that your site is up to date, creates a positive image, and dovetails with the info in your resume.

And remember: there are laws that protect you. You don’t have to divulge your age – so, unless you have a good reason for including it, don’t. Keep your age mysterious, and this means, for example, that when you list educational degrees, skip the date you graduated – it’s a surefire telltale.

Jobs from twenty years ago? A resume isn’t a biography, it’s a tool for showing why you’re what this prospective employer needs now. Give them what they’re looking for – show them why your recent background prepares you to deliver the goods, that you have the capacity to give them what they need. And they don’t need to know what you do on a “typical day” – give them a broad sense of your recent job responsibilities and capabilities, not a rehash of your daily “to-do” lists.

Reasons why you’re leaving your current job? You may need answers for this in an interview, but a resume is like a written interview where you get to ask all the questions – so don’t put yourself on the spot, describing how your current job situation is making you miserable, because the person reading your litany of dissatisfaction will hesitate to hire you. They know you’re looking for a change – leave it at that.

Should your resume have your photo? Maybe a nice headshot? NO! Your appearance is immaterial, as is your height, weight, hair color, eye color, skin color, marriage status, religion, personal wealth, personal health. Stick to what matters. Unless you’re an actress seeking a part in a play, or something similar, all that personal info is irrelevant.

Salary requirements? This one’s tricky. The prospective employer may want to know if their wage parameters are at least in the vicinity of your ballpark. Sometimes they’ll even request such information. The salary issue is a judgment call – so our advice is to use your best judgment, rather than just randomly including or excluding details in your resume. Most commentators suggest that a cover letter is perhaps the better alternative for addressing monetary requirements.

Including references is often tied up with the propriety of involving personnel at your current employer. Do you want the word to get out that you’re in the market to leave your present position? Maybe yes, maybe no, so again – it’s a judgment call. But quite frankly, think about it carefully: do you really want the prospective employer randomly calling your current workplace, possibly even before you’ve had an interview? And is it worth it to clog up the limited space on your resume with a bunch of names and associated contact information? References may be needed eventually, but generally not at the outset.

Bottom line on all of this: you want those prospective employers to see you as a topnotch prospect ready to go, an able cog that will help power their machine. So, after you write your resume from your perspective, try to re-read it from theirs – and take out all the noise. If you hit it out of the park with your resume, you’ll be well on your way to the next challenge – the interview!