Eight things which you should delete from your resume to keep it clean

Jobs have evolved and so has the format of hiring people. Therefore, you should also update your resume rather than following a template that your senior from college passed on to you.

I am listing down some points that are no longer relevant in today’s digital age when you send your resumes.

1. Career objective

“My objective is to work for an esteemed organization where I contribute my knowledge and improve my personal and professional skills…and some more buttering sentences that don’t make sense…”

I am sure you are not sending this resume by personalizing for each company so stop acting as if your sole career objective is to work for an esteemed organization. Would you not accept a job offer from a startup because it’s not esteemed? Your career objective cannot be so narrow-minded and the same as that of other candidates therefore, please stop putting this.

What to do-
Replace this section with summary and use it to tell recruiters why you are unique. What are the skills that set you apart? Who are you actually in person?

2. Strong communication skills

“I have strong communication and interpersonal skills…”

Alright! Would there be a candidate who would accept that their communication skills are weak? Then, how are you unique again? Every job and every company is looking for a candidate who has strong communication skills. Writing this will not help you.

Prove your communication skills are strong when you get a chance during the interviews. Prove your communication skills are strong by writing a good resume.

3. MS Word and Excel as software skills

Microsoft Office…Everyone when graduating feels like writing this because…
‘can’t leave the software section empty’…Why? Why waste a resume’s precious real estate with something so trivial?
What cracks me is that post-graduates and even experienced folks put MS Office as skills in their resume. Even a school kid knows these two software. And, please stop writing Microsoft Windows unless you know how to code for it.

Unless you know a few programming languages or some domain specific tools like that for design, statistics, don’t add this section of software skills.

4. Unprofessional email ids

“Hulk_ishere@email.com, Krone_kills@email.com, Me&BrettLee@email.com…and so on”

Growing up in school, you might have created an email id in the name of your favourite sports person, WWE wrestler, or a superhero from a comic…

Keep that for your personal use and instead create an email id that doesn’t bias your hiring manager. Keep your email id simple with your first name and last name.

5. Full postal address

Another detail which doesn’t make sense for 202X year. Are you expecting a recruiter to send you an interview invite via post? Recruiters would ask you for your address once your job is confirmed but they don’t need it when you haven’t given the interview. So, delete it and save some space.
The only thing that might be relevant is the city you are in which also is optional if you are open to switching cities.

6. Declaration

“I hereby declare that all the information…is true to my knowledge…Name/Date/Place”

Another section that got passed on from the offline format. The funny part is that people add this section but don’t sign it. If you don’t add this declaration, would it mean that the information you added to their resume is fake? No! And, if you sign the declaration after writing fake information, would that become true?

Resume is a document that speaks of you. It is supposed to be truthful irrespective of your declaration. So, stop putting this section.

7. References

Though this section is not as popular as the above sections, some people do add this section also in their resumes. Recruiters don’t look for references before candidates reach the final interview stage. And, many companies don’t even require this information. So, you don’t need this in your resume. Please provide this information when you are asked for it.

8. Marital status

Does your job require you to be married or remain single? Or would you be interested in working for an employer who would judge you on the basis of your marital status? If the answer is no then, stop promoting this section by writing it in your resume.

Why am I asking to delete things? Because recruiters and hiring managers spend very less time reading resumes. Therefore, you need to add information that will help you get that interview call. Don’t explain every small detail related to your jobs, especially the ones on which you worked more than 2 years ago.
Keep resumes concise with 1 or 2 pages maximum.