As a Certified Professional Resume Writer with 13.5 years of experience, I review countless resumes every day, and the majority of the resumes contain information that should never be included. I thought you might be interested in knowing some of this information.
Personal Information
1. Employers should never know you are married, single, or have children. The majority of professionals have children, particularly young children. Young children are prone to getting sick, which means the employee will have to make trips to the doctor, take off work to go to school and talk with the teacher, attend school events, and so on. The bottom-line is that it is never a wise strategy to tell prospective employers in the resume you have children.
2. Moreover, employers do not need to know you are single: ("Great, we'll get him/her to work l-o-n-g hours!). They don't need to know you are married either: "(Great, his/her spouse won't be happy with him traveling or working late!")
3. Your height/weight. It is certainly not a selling point to announce your height or weight. Who really cares? :) Adding this screams "1960s!"
4. Moreover, no one cares that you like to bowl, go dancing, read books, use the Internet, chat with your family and friends, sleep late on Saturdays, or play golf. Again, this dates back to the 1960s. Your interests and hobbies are not selling points, and this should not be part of your resume.
5. Religious affiliations. It is never, ever a good idea to include any religious information in your resume! Never. Ever. People are prejudice and can use this against you, no matter how great you are in the business world.
6. Political affiliations. The same principles apply here - don't announce your political beliefs; it will most likely work against you and it has no connection to your career.
7. Personal photographs. It's never, ever a good idea to include your photograph in your resume. It's simply not done. Here's the reason - if you were to place your photograph on your resume, it is prejudicial. I want to be delicate on this issue, but the fact is there are many prejudices in the world, and you don't want that to stop you from getting interviews.
These are seven things you should avoid including in a resume. This type of information adds no value to your professional resume, and doesn't make your resume comply with 2006 guidelines.
If you need help writing a professional resume, contact me at info@agreatresume.com. I'd be happy to help you. JoAnn Nix, www.agreatresume.com, 1-800-265-6901
Nice Article. I always used to wonder if its good to include an URL of my ex-company's blog to highlight/showcase my earlier projects.
Posted by: Vijay | August 01, 2011 at 06:31 AM