I know how tempting it is to pad your resume with every accomplishment, every job experience, and every little detail about you that’s worth mentioning. Apart from making you seem like an experienced person, this is a reflection of how attached you’re to your personal and professional history, which is understandable. It seems logical to tell prospective employers everything about you, all jam-packed in a little document. Except it is absolutely not.
It is counterproductive and can cost you not one, but all the jobs you’ve been salivating.
You don’t want to blabber, you don’t want to drag on about unnecessary details. Most importantly, you don’t want to have a long resume. Think of your resume as a personal brand statement. Every word, every sentence and every point should be carefully crafted to reflect you as a certain kind of person; the ideal one for the job.
As such, resume padding doesn’t work in your favour, but against it. Instead of appearing experienced, you end up burying the important facts that could land you the job. You end up striking yourself as inexperienced and trying too hard. You end up seeming all over the place without a clear career direction.
Today, we’re going to do a little decluttering. So bring out your red pen, let’s begin with these important 5:
1. Career objective
Oh, so you want a challenging position with a fast-growing company that allows you maximize your potential? What are you saying, my friend? You just started your resume with the most boring, most vague and cliche paragraph in the whole wide job-hunting-miniverse, and your prospective employers are already falling asleep.
Instead of this unpalatable statement, why not focus on crafting a great personal summary instead? What’s your unique value proposition? Why are you the best person for the job? Make this as short and attention-grabbing as possible. In other words, leave the history out, that’s for your cover letter.
2. Lies
You’re really desperate for the job and to increase your chances of being accepted, you lied. Only, your prospective employer did a little background check and found you out, so you end up losing the job even though you’re overqualified for it. See? Why take the risk?
It’s already obvious you shouldn’t tell lies in your resume, yet a great number of people do it. If it’s not the blatant lies, it’s exaggerations and half-truths. Just desist from this. Focus instead on your real strengths and selling points.
3. Outdated skills
So you’re proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel PowerPoint and blah blah blah… amazing right?
Nope. This is 2018 people, and every employer expects you to have these skills. If you don’t have them, perhaps you shouldn’t even be applying for jobs yet. Putting such skills on your resume only take up precious space you could have used for something much more important. As you’ve come to realize, the leaner the resume, the more chances it has of being effective.
4. Jobs from 10+ years ago
All those small jobs you had in college and immediately after graduation have no business being on your resume, except in the rare cases where they have something to do with the job you’re applying for.
One thing you do not understand is that your resume is not an autobiographical document, it is a marketing document. So being a mathematics teacher during NYSC has nothing to do with the content editor job you’re applying for.
To all Nigerian graduates, let go of your attachments to your NYSC jobs for the love of all that’s sweet and holy. It’s a great experience yes, but If it has nothing to do with your career objective, let it go.
5. Any other point that doesn’t directly relate to the Job you’re applying for
This covers a lot of things, but you have to be the judge yourself. The rule of thumb is if it’s not directly related to the job, leave it out.
So your quirky interest might be interesting. Your awards and accomplishment might be worthy of praise, but if they don’t serve the purpose of magnifying your personal brand, they’re best left out.
Hopefully, these little corrections will help bring your resume out from the dark to light. They’re not the only changes that can make your resume top notch, but I hope they give you an understanding of what needs to be done and a great headstart towards having the type of resume that makes you a hot cake in the sight of prospective employers.
