We so often hear about what you should include on your resume, but it isn’t often discussed what you should leave off. It’s important to spend time working on your resume and ensuring it’s thoughtfully crafted and every word has a purpose. Leaving off any fluff or filler words and spelling mistakes or grammar errors goes without saying, but there are additional things you should consider. Ideally, your resume should be one page long and in order to fit all relevant information, every word needs to be carefully placed. Here are some sections to remove from your resume.
Your Home Address
You should only have one phone number and a professional email address listed as your contact information. In an article in The Washington Post, they write, “You will not be receiving any communication at your physical address, and while you can include your city if you would like, that is not necessary either, especially if the position is going to be entirely or mostly remote.” Not only does having your address listed take up valuable real estate space on your resume, but it can also now be considered a security risk, so it is best to remove it.
Personal Information
Don’t include any personal information about yourself such as your ethnicity, physical attributes, marital status, sexuality, or personal or religious beliefs. Not only would this be irrelevant information, but it could even lead to potential discrimination. Along the same lines, do not include a photo of yourself on your resume as it may come off as unprofessional.
Your Objective
In an article on Inc., they write, “Recruiters don’t care what your objective is. They care about whether you have the skills to get the job done. At best, including your objective can seem like a minor distraction; at worst, it can make you look immature or unrealistic. Getting rid of it also leaves room for you to include other things (or increase your font size).” Instead, you should replace your objective statement at the top of your resume with a summary of your achievements. You want to communicate that you are a strong candidate and you should put in the accomplishments you have that are tied to the role you want to do.
Repetitive Words
It’s important you articulate yourself in the most impactful way on your resume and one way to do so is by varying your vocabulary. As mentioned at the beginning of this blog, your resume should only be one page long, so do your best to add a bit of range to avoid sounding dull and repetitive. If needed, look up synonyms for words or phrases to add a bit of variety and if you do use the same word twice, at the very least, make sure it’s spaced out.