Resume DOs & DON'Ts

The recruitment process has become almost identical all over the corporate world. A job description is written by the human resources (HR) department; the job is posted and announced on several places like a website, newspaper or email listserv; resumes are received/collected and screened; slightly better ones are shortlisted and later interviewed in person or over the phone, and only of them is hired. That one lucky person gets the job.

Resumes have become like a passport for job-seekers, and it is an important piece of paper for employers as well. Even though there are websites like www.visualcv.com out there trying to change the notion of a one to two-page resume on an A4 paper, a classic black and white resume still dominates the recruitment market and seems to me that neither employers, nor candidates show strong willingness to adopt the new visually attractive resume styles.

In this article, I will talk about the DOs and DON’Ts of classic resumes. This list is expected to give you just a general idea of what kind of information you are expected to have and to not have on your resume. There might be exceptional cases, and it is absolutely fine to do any of DON’Ts or not to do any particular DO. So, the best piece of advice I can give is to read the job description (JD) carefully of the vacancy you are planning to apply and see what the employer wants. If you read the JD carefully, then it will be easy for you to tailor down your resume according to that specific vacant position and the needs of that company.

DO. Add your e-mail address, cell phone number, and the physical address.

DON’T. Do not add your marital status, age, gender, date of birth, or any this kind of personal information. Do not add a picture unless you are required to.

DO. Make sure your resume is recently updated, and feel free to add the latest update date. This will show that you constantly work on your resume to keep it up to date.

DON’T. Do not write an objective unless the job description requires one. A job description used to be very important. However, people have overused it, therefore, whatever you are going to say in the objective line will sound cliché to the employer.

DO. Insert the dates of your employment, education, training and conferences you attended. This will help the employer get a better idea of what you had been doing in different times.

DON’T. Do not add the name of the high school you attended unless it is the only educational institution you ever attended.

DO. Add your accomplishments at your previous jobs. However, this does not mean that you should copy and paste your previous job description. Use action verbs to describe your achievements. For example; “- Successfully redesigned the entire customer registration process in 3 months which saved customers a lot of time.”

DON’T. Do not write on your resume why you resigned or ended your contract with your previous employer. If interested, the employers will ask for the reason during the interview.

DO. Feel free to add URLs into your resume. However, it will look professional if you add a URL to the specific word or phrase. It is not acceptable to copy and paste a long URL into your resume.

DON’T. Do not add your picture unless it is required by the employer.

DO. Keep your resume as short as possible. Be able to filter out the unnecessary/old information. Keep in mind that employers spend up to 20 seconds to screen your resume. Only if you do get shortlisted, they will have a deeper look on your details. You have up to 20 seconds to impress the recruiters. So, would you still make a 4-page long resume with every single training session you attended? I personally would prefer not to.

DON’T. Do not add your references. If needed, the recruiter will ask for them.

This is very important so I will repeat myself: recruiters spend up to 20 seconds on each resume they receive. Only the outstanding ones make it to the short list to be interviewed. The DOs and DON’Ts I just talked about will help you polish your resume so that it will stand out by being clear and simple, as well as highlighting the information recruiters need to see.