10 Things to Exclude from Your Resume

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

1 Your age, date of birth, date you graduated (since that hints at your age), gender or any protected status such as disability, sexual orientation or veteran status. Employers wince when they see these because it exposes them to possible liability if they don’t hire you.

2 The fact that you graduated from high school. It’s assumed that if you have a college degree listed, you have graduated from high school. Listing your high school wastes space.

3 More than one page. Unless you possess an extensive background and are applying for a top-level position, you need only one page. But if you must go for two, make sure the second page is at least half full.

4 Personal information such as “family man” or “happy grandmother of three” because employers don’t care about your personal life. Unless the employer would directly benefit from your experiences, do not list this information.

5 Your social security number or your citizen status. They’ll get this information once you are in the hiring process. Don’t worry about it now.

6 Hackneyed phrases such as: go-getter, results-driven, hard worker, demonstrated ability to, people person, interpersonal skills. Recruiters skip right over these phrases because they see them so often.

7 Odd fonts (Times New Roman, Courier or Arial are good), any color but black font on white, borders or graphics. Keep it easy to read.

8 Photos. Unless you’re an aspiring model or actor, employers don’t need to know what you look like until you come in for an interview.

9 A non-professional email address. “fluffykitties@gmail.com” doesn’t sound as professional as “salesleader@gmail.com” would.

10 A shared phone number. Use your cell phone instead.