Your resume has one single, solitary purpose. Its only objective is to land you an interview.
Many job seekers have a difficult time with this concept. They prepare documents that describe a lifetime of work experience, from baby sitter through senior manager. They use their resumes to explain the ups and downs of their careers, including their reasons for joining and leaving every company along the way.
Don’t make the mistake of creating one of these endless (and endlessly boring) resumes. When hiring managers face the daunting task of screening resumes, they want to find the right candidate as fast as possible. Give them what they want.
Eliminate everything except the most relevant, compelling aspects of your background. Remove anything that may disqualify you from landing the position. Save your explanations and justifications for the interview, if you still believe that they’re necessary at that point.
It’s a good idea to avoid potential screen-out factors, such as: Jobs that you worked more than 10 to 15 years ago. Training and experience in unrelated fields. Marital status. Age. Religion. Nationality. Salary. Hobbies. Photographs.
Every situation is different, and there are no hard-and-fast resume rules that make sense for everybody. To shake things up a bit, here are a few exceptions to the above list:
Extended work history. It might be prudent to add experience beyond 15 years if you are a senior executive, college-level educator or returning to a former career.
Personal information. Other countries have different standards for resume materials, and some regions require personal data consisting of your age, nationality and marital status. In some parts of the world, candidates must send photos. A quick Internet search will tell you what information to include.
Religion. It’s usually best to take out nonsecular affiliations unless you are applying for faith-based positions or roles with religious institutions.
Salary. If you want to work for the government, you may need to add salary information to your resume. All other applicants should avoid it.
Hobbies. Unless your hobbies directly support your candidacy, don’t include them. Of course, if you happen to run marathons in your free time, this can boost your positioning for a competitive role, so you may wish to list it in your resume. International travel may be helpful when targeting global organizations. Otherwise, get rid of irrelevant information.
Here’s one more thing that should be kept out of your resume: Illness.
Many job hunters feel obligated to discuss health issues in their introductory documents. For some, it provides rationalization for a gap in employment. For others, it explains a disability or limitation in job capabilities.
If you recently helped a relative overcome illness, or dealt with one yourself, you have several choices: Touch on it (carefully) in your cover letter. Save it for the interview. Or avoid it completely.
I would lean toward the last two options, but as I said, every situation is different. Let’s say you’re looking for employment with a hospice or health-care organization. In this case, your personal experience may support your candidacy. Just be cautious when preparing your resume. You want the employer to consider your knowledge and enthusiasm for health care, not worry about your condition or reliability.
Send your job search questions to Eve.GetAJob@gmail.com.
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