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Things you Should Never Put on your Resume … Or Should you?

An article in Business Insider gives tips on things not to include in your resume. You can find the article here: http://www.businessinsider.com/11-things-you-should-never-put-on-your-resume-job-2011-12 .

Some of the suggestions make perfect sense: skip personal information such as your SIN, don’t include irrelevant work experience and so on. That being said, there were three tips on the list that we strongly disagree with.

They are:

Get rid of the objective: If you applied, it's already obvious you want the job.
Not true! A vague objective is certainly a waste of space on your resume. A clearly defined objective, on the other hand, can be truly helpful. It might sound silly, but if you are applying for a sales job at, say, Pronexia and you include an objective in your resume that states: “Looking for a Business Development role at a Headhunting Firm”,  you will stand out. Candidates tend to apply to dozens of postings where they see a potential fit, but by being specific you are demonstrating to a potential employer that your search is focused.

Don't let your resume exceed one page.
The article suggests that Recruiters have no time to through a resume that is longer than a page. What?! As we suggested before, your resume should be of whatever length is required to communicate your relevant experience. We actually wrote a whole post on this subject. You can find it here: http://pronexia.blogspot.ca/2010/11/1-myth-of-resume-writing-resume-should.html


Don't list your hobbies.
DO list your hobbies! There is nothing more exciting to a hiring manager than seeing that one of your hobbies is related to their industry (music if they are a music label, gaming if they are a gaming studio, and so forth). If you list a hobby that is also something that the Hiring Manager enjoys, you are even more likely to land an interview.

Oh recruitment… So much conflicting advice. At the end of the day – use your common sense and don’t overanalyze things. Let your personality shine through your one- or two- or three-page resume.