Did you know about these resume do’s and don’ts?

Resumes are sometimes tricky to get right. There will be so many questions like, “Should I be sending this traditional resume to a trendy startup?” and “Will they really reject my resume because of the objective?” Since we know that many job seekers get frustrated while penning their resumes, we thought of sharing some resume do’s and don’ts with you to make things easier the next time you write a resume.

DO these things on your resume

Highlight relevant experience

Each resume you write must be different from the previous one. If you don’t make any changes in your resume for new job applications, you are failing to customize your resume for the employer. This may cause your resume to have a low ranking on the ATS due to the lack of relevant keywords. Follow reverse chronological order when listing your experiences on the resume. Your most recent and most relevant experiences must go on at the top. Ensure that you describe the jobs using 3-6 bullet points.

Optimize your resume for the ATS

This is one of the most important things you must do for your job application. Many large, medium, and small businesses employ the use of an ATS to filter job applications. These applicant tracking systems scan your resume for keywords and assign a mathematical score for your application. If you are unaware of ATS-compatible resume-writing practices, here’s an article that explains all about beating the bots in the hiring process. You should also use an ATS-friendly resume format.

Include a variety of skills

Including job-related skills on your resume is an absolute necessity. When talking about skills, there are multiple types of skills as hard skills, soft skills, transferable skills, and technical skills. Be sure to include a mixture of all of these skill types on your resume. This article will help you understand the importance of each type of skill for your resume. Some important skills for any type of resume are leadership skills, organizational skills, collaboration skills, and critical thinking skills.

DON’T do these things on your resume

Leave the Work Experience section blank

You must never leave the work experience section blank on your resume. No hiring manager will be willing to meet a candidate who has not even tried to emphasize work experience on their resume. Let’s say that you are a fresh out of college graduate without any paid work experience. It doesn’t mean that you don’t have any experience to add to your resume. Look into your extra-curricular activities to emphasize work experience. Any volunteer jobs you have taken, freelance projects you have completed, and community service you have done can be used to highlight job-related skills and experience.

Mention confidential information

When you are including details of your past jobs, you need to be careful not to mention anything confidential on your resume. Talk to your previous employers and ask them whether it is okay for you to mention certain metrics and data on your resume. While the numbers look impressive on your resume, your previous employers may not want to expose certain details to their competitors.

List older jobs

This one is important when you are an older professional. Mentioning dates older than the last 10-15 years may get you subjected to age discrimination. Ageism in the hiring process is a huge problem even today. One way to ensure that hiring managers can’t approximate your age through your resume is to remove older dates from the document. You can also remove any mentions of outdated skills and experiences.