Your resume is your way of saying “Hey guys, THIS is what I bring to the table!” It’s the first thing an employer will see before they even meet or speak to you on the phone. Avoiding these major don’ts are critical so you can land that interview and make a great first impression!

Don’t Steal the Job Description’s Exact Wording If a company says for example it’s looking for candidates who “learn rapidly” and “have a diverse knowledge of programming languages,” your skills section shouldn’t read “learns rapidly” and “has a diverse knowledge of programming languages.” Instead, find a different way of saying the same thing. For example in this case maybe you could devote a resume bullet to a software you learned in two weeks, or list the seven different programming languages you’re familiar with.

Don’t include any confidential info As a rule if you wouldn’t want it published on the front page of a newspaper for ALL to see, then leave it off the resume!

Don’t include obvious skills Nearly everyone assumes you know how to use Microsoft Word and the internet. Use your valuable resume space to highlight skills that actually make you stand out. Think of which of your skills apply to that job and add them in.

Don’t Try to Hide Gaps While it’s okay to glaze over gaps a little (for example, by just using years to show dates of employments instead of months and years), you should never outright lie about them. Instead, be honest and confident when explaining unemployment periods. Did you pick up any skills that apply to the job during that time? Be sure to mention them!

Don’t Use Clichés or Jargon Hiring managers are unenthused and frankly pretty tired of seeing cliche descriptions like hard worker, detail oriented, and team player on resumes. Think about what ELSE you could mention that defines why you are a great candidate!

Don’t Use Negative Phrases You should be careful of using words with negative connotations even if you’re using them in a positive light. Saying for example that you, “met aggressive sales goals” or “fixed widespread communication problems” could subconsciously make recruiters or hiring managers think you are a negative person. You want them to see you in the best light possible so stick to the positive!

Don’t include the phrase “References available upon request” It will take up valuable room on your resume and if an employer wants to learn more or is interested in hiring you, they know the next steps ; )

Don’t Include Anything That Could Be Discriminated Against While it’s illegal to discriminate against a job candidate because of his or her age, marital status, gender, religion, race, color, or national origin, sadly it can happen. Leave those details off of your resume.

Don’t use fancy fonts Stick to Times New Roman or Arial as they can confuse the applicant tracking system which initially weeds out resumes based on your keywords.

Remember your resume is the key to opening the door to an interview. It’s also NEVER too late to update it and you should make sure to tweak it each time you have relevant work experience.

Good luck! #resumetips