7 things recruiters don't want to see on your resume
Posted on 29/09/2021 by Jessica Renaglia
When you apply for a job, your resume is the first impression a recruitment consultant or employer has of you. The information you provide can be fundamental in determining whether you are selected for interview.
Superfluous information, bad photos, and loud resume layouts are just some of the things which may jeopardise your chances. To find out more, we turned to the Entrée team and asked them: what don’t you want to see on a resume?
1. Distracting fonts and layouts
This is one of the biggest bugbears for recruiters. With all the resumes we have to go through, we need them to be as easy to read as possible! You may think you’re standing out from the crowd with your bright colours and unconventional layout, but the reality is, if a recruiter or employer can’t get the information they need quickly, you may get passed over. Also—make sure you pay attention to the fine points in job ads. If it asks for your resume in a word format, follow the instructions.
2. Photos
Recruiters are divided on this one. Some like photos on resumes, others don’t, yet all can agree: keep your photo professional! Honestly, we have seen it all: selfies- complete with a duck-mouth pose; overly photoshopped images; and casual, not-appropriate-for-resume photos. If you are unsure whether your photo is appropriate or not, it’s probably safer to go without. Some candidates believe they will be discounted without a photo. Not so. A recruiter shouldn’t be biased by your appearance, so not including a photo will not compromise your chances.
3. Irrelevant Information
Whether you have kids, two dogs, twenty cats, are divorced or single—your resume is not the time to be talking about it. Not because we don’t care about you as a person, we do, but all of this will have no impact to your job search. Well. Owning twenty cats might. You probably shouldn’t tell anyone about that…
4.Vague Objective Statements
“Seeking a challenging position offering professional growth.” Great, but what does it really mean? The only thing this shows recruiters is that you have a penchant for stating vague career objectives on your resume. What you want for your future doesn’t help a recruiter or employer understand the kind of candidate you are now.
5. Domestic Engineer
Don’t be ashamed of motherhood. We have seen candidates try to explain away parental leave a number of ways: domestic engineer, sandwich artist, taxi… for whatever reason, some women feel the need to dress up motherhood as something else, as if it’s something they are ashamed of. Don’t be!
6. Journal of your duties and responsibilities
Sure, recruiters want to know what your key responsibilities were at your previous job, they just don’t need to know all the fine details. There’s a reason why we call it “key” responsibilities. Keep it short and sweet, stay away from the minutia, and list in dot points for easy reading.
7. Unexplained gaps
Transparency is always the best policy. Not explaining a gap in your resume is a worse than trying to ignore them. Remember, a resume is a document which represents your backgrounds and skills, and is a summary of relevant job experience. Anything on top of that doesn’t need to be included.
Still need help? You can download the Entree resume template here.