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Your resume is your brand. It is a glance for a potential employer to get a full view of your work experience. As tempting as it may be to want to include everything, you’ll have to take a moment to ensure the information conveyed is the right snapshot to help get you the job.
For many who haven’t written a resume before, you can start by reading these tips on how to get off the ground running. And for those who have written one before but are still finding difficulties landing the job interview, it may be time to review your resume to make sure it’s conveying your unique and strong qualities in the brightest light.
There are plenty of different resume tips and job connection services to help your resume get you the interview you desire. Still, sometimes it’s just about leaving items off the resume as opposed to revising and adding. These items include an objective section, obscure or superfluous interests, irrelevant jobs, unemployment gaps, and blatant lies.
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Obscure Hobbies and Interests
Avoid adding hobbies that do not pertain to the job’s needed skills onto your resume. Keep these interesting parts of yourself for the interview as they can come in handy in the small talk for the hiring manager getting to know you.
Many resume tip articles say that adding hobbies can potentially show depth, so if you do go this route, make sure that the hobbies you list are professionally relevant, such as interest in drawing or art, if you are applying for a job architecture industry.
Overall, obscure hobbies and interests should be left off the resume as it takes space from information that can actually be valuable to you getting the job. But, if the hobbies translate to skills, or do they brand you somehow that would show that you are a great fit, then you may want to leave it in.
For example, say you’re going for the job of a digital marketing strategist. Listing the blogs you have created would actually help.
Objective Section
Turn the objectives section from what you are searching for into an overall summary of how valuable you can be to the company. Once you’ve applied to the company, it’s understood that you want the job to explain that further in the objective section is unnecessary.
An alternative to writing a whole objective section is to use this space to write a list of skills and values you can bring to the team. Short sentences and keywords can be more effective in painting the picture of who you are and why they should hire you. Leave your objective section out and bring in a summary of who you are.
Irrelevant Jobs
In most cases, you want to list your jobs in chronological order, from most recent to oldest. However, there are times when a job you had in the past may not apply at all to the one for which you are applying. In this instance, it may be best to leave this item off your resume.
However, even if the title and industry of a past job were different, if you can explain how the skills you learned are relevant to the job you want, then make sure to emphasize this point and include the position.
Study the job description of what you’re applying for and see how you can help contribute to that company with the position you had. Think outside the title of your job and open your lens to what else it entailed.
Unemployment Gaps
If there is a gap in work experience, fill it in with other work you may have been doing, such as volunteer work, speaking engagements, contracted and temporary work, helping out another business (which would be considered consulting), our courses are taken to improve your skills.
Work comes in many different forms, and if you are adding forms of work also to avoid large unemployment gaps, be sure to focus on describing the skills you utilized that would pertain to which you are applying.
If there was a personal family matter, health-related issue, or another situation that took you away from the workforce, this is best discussed during the interview or addressed in the cover letter.
It is not uncommon to hit bumps along the road of life. Just make sure it’s conveyed honestly with a light on the valuable strengths to the job you desire.
Blatant Lies
Candidates should focus on what they can bring to the table. Lies such as having a false diploma to writing down a made-up employer, in the long run, can hurt your job satisfaction and put you in a dead-end career. Today, a potential employer can find you on the internet, so you may not get far with these lies anyway.
If you don’t have the exact skills an employer is looking for, that may be just fine. Add your reasoning to your cover letter and let the hiring manager decide if they should bring you into the company. Your credentials and skills will speak for themselves and will eventually lead you to a job for which you are most suited.
It’s far better to admit what you may not know rather than to lie your way through a resume. Even something simple like embellishing a position can lead you down the wrong path. Instead, express your interest in continuing to learn and the strides you’ve taken to add skills a company will find valuable.
Putting together a solid resume may be intimidating, but once all the information is there, it’s a matter of making it look professional. These resume tips will keep your brand fresh and straight to the point. Don’t forget to keep submitting your resume, as it’s about getting it out there to different jobs and job connection centers so it can be seen by the right people and get you the job you desire with haste.
