Is your résumé outdated?
Your resume goes through layers and layers of screening steps, processes and people. When (and if) it finally lands in the hands of a hiring manager or recruiter, you want to ensure you’re not coming across outdated and irrelevant, but are instead representing a candidate that is innovative, progressive and GETS STRAIGHT TO THE POINT.
To do that, there’s a certain criteria you need to follow in order to ensure your presenting an ‘up-with-the-times’ résumé. It’s all about psychology — the format, organisation, and structure of your resume is going to make the employer associate those positives and negative connotations with YOU. This is really unfair, of course, because they haven’t even met you. But this is the reality of recruitment, and the sooner you up your resume-writing game, the faster you will land your dream role.
Follow this criteria for modernising your résumé:
1. Take out your full address
WHY: It’s a waste of space and you don’t know how companies are going to handle your private information. Unless you sign privacy notices, never share where you live. Also, you don’t want unnecessary clutter with the address. Just put the suburb you live in so the employer knows you can commit to traveling the required distance to work.
2. Include your LinkedIn URL
WHY: It shows you’re progressive and its a chance to showcase your work. It’s also a chance to present a photo of yourself and any recommendations you’ve received. In addition, most people have their account on ‘public viewing mode’, meaning you’ll know when a company is looking at your profile and who is interested in you.
3. Leave off the photo
WHY: There are so many reasons! It’s outdated, it should be on your LinkedIn instead, and it’s creepy. Imagine being a recruiter, sifting through 100s of resumes and applications a day, to suddenly be startled with a with a photo! At home whilst you’re creating your resume, it might look good, but in the context of the employer, it looks random and puts people off — no matter how good looking you are. No one wants eyes staring at them unexpectedly — so leave the photo to LinkedIn.
4. Delete anything personal
WHY: Well, why would we need to know your martial status when considering you for a job? Or your religion? Or how many kids you have? These are all irrelevant and ILLEGAL to ask candidates, and are again contributing to that all important barrier — unnecessary clutter.
5. Address gaps in employment history
WHY: You don’t want to be qualified out before you’ve had the chance to explain yourself. Most reasons are actually quite acceptable to employers and can include: started a business, career break, break to raise family, travel break, medical break, etc. You can keep it brief and still address those concerns early in the process. Don’t be afraid to also list jobs you did during that time what were unrelated to the role — any work is better than no work in the eyes of an employer.
6. Take out your references altogether
WHY: Most people write ‘References available upon request’ on their résumé, but it’s best to keep this off altogether. As daunting as that may sound, employers will not hesitate in asking for referees if there’s a reference check stage as part of their process. They won’t get to that final stage and say, ‘Hold on, before we call the candidate to get the referee details, let’s check his resume and see whether he’s noted that he can provide them’. It’s a step that literally never happens. So don’t write that they’re available and certainly don’t give your referees full name and address — you want to be able to warn them they’ll be receiving a call so they can prepare to give you a glowing recommendation.