Some Things Only Your Mother Should Know
Everything about you is fascinating to your mother and maybe your spouse but definitely not to a potential employer. So what things of a personal nature should you include on your resume?
Well the short answer is – not much. What the employer wants to know is can you get the job done and will you fit in with the corporate culture.
So leave off personal information such as your marital status, number of children, gender, physical health or size. None of this matters to the employer when he or she is looking at your resume. And it can detract from the message you really want to send – you can do the work that needs to be done.
If you’ve been in the workplace for more than five years, leave off the details of your first jobs. If the work you did then is relevant to the work you do today, simply summarize those earliest positions.
I saw a four-page resume recently. Putting aside that that there’s very little evidence showing that American companies want these super long resumes, over a page of this resume was filled with personal information. The gentleman waxed poetic about his family, his pets, and the novel that he was writing, his goals and dreams were outlined too. His earliest work experience was set out in agonizing detail. None of this related to the job he was pursuing as a C-level executive.
This is way more work than anyone needs to put into a resume. And more importantly, its way more work than the reader will put into reading it. That’s not good.
The resume is one more proof that you are who you say you are. It shouldn’t be a tome to your life. Write a memoir instead.
Posted by: Camilla Dadey