Job recruiters sift through countless resumes before deciding to bring a select few applicants in for an interview. So how can you make your resume stand out? The first step is eliminating the things that job recruiters aren’t interested in. Here are some sections of your resume you should think about editing or removing altogether:
Education. Unless you are applying to a role that is recruited exclusively for MBAs, recruiters often won’t look at where you went to college. Experience is king. This changes drastically by industry and company but overall they will be looking at your previous relevant work experience.
Fancy Formatting. Unless you are applying for a creative position, recruiters won’t base reaching out to you on your formatting skills. Sure, they love beautifully presented resumes as much as the next person but many companies, especially those that require you to apply online, will just convert your resume to pure text.
Too Many Personal Details. There are legal reasons they tune some of these out, like marital status, family status or reference to health or medical issues. But things like including your photo on a CV or resume makes recruiters uncomfortable. If they want to see what you look like, they will check out your LinkedIn profile.
Page 2, 3, or 4 of Your Resume. Unless you are a college professor with multiple published works, you do not need more than a one-page resume. It’s not impressive, and can often come off as a bit pretentious to recruiters. Condense your resume to fit nicely on one page.
Cover Letters. Unless it’s required, just don’t include it. Recruiters don’t need even more to read than the thousands of resumes in their inbox. If you do send one, it better be pretty darn good, with clear writing and organized thoughts. Most companies only request them to weed out the people who don’t know how to read directions, not to actually read them.
