What Not to Put on a Good Resume: 20 Things to Avoid in 2019

Did you know that some recruiters read resumes not to select
applicants for an interview, but to see how they’re NOT fit for the job?

You see, recruiters receive a ton of resumes for any given job and
many of those read alike. So, it’s easier to thin out the herd instead
of cherry picking from a hundred applicants with practically the same
qualifications.

That’s why it’s equally important to know what not to put on a
resume. In this tutorial, you'll learn some words not to use in a resume as well as what you should not do when designing a resume.

What Should You Not Do When Designing a Resume?

You may think that only your resume’s content matters, but that’s
far from the truth. Unless your resume will only be viewed on an Applicant
Tracking System (ATS) or an online database that standardizes how the
information appears for all applications—not likely—your resume needs to be
well formatted.

Below are a few things not to put on resume, design and formatting wise:

1. Long Blocks of Text

Recruiters skim resumes instead of reading them line by line.
That means you should avoid long paragraphs and big blocks of text. Use bullet points and keep your sentences concise.

2. Wrong Format

If the job ad states the resume should be sent in PDF, then you
should send it as PDF.  You might think
this isn’t a big deal, but the employer might be requesting PDF because that’s
the format used on the ATS they use to process job applications. So even if
your resume is read, your qualifications might not read properly, or the bullet
points and columns could get messed up.

• 
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  Best Resume Format: The Ultimate Guide to PDF vs Word
  
  
  Laura Spencer

3. Bright or Hard to Read Text

Yellow or any light-colored text is at the top of the things you shouldn't put on your resume.

Resist the temptation to use fancy colors on your resume’s font
and design elements. Stick to black when it comes to the resume body’s text and
keep the font size from 10 to 12.

If you really want to add color, make sure it’s not a strain to
the eyes on screen and on print.

You now know what you shouldn't do when designing a resume. 

But perhaps you don't have the time to design a template from scratch, so here are some creative resume templates that don't use hard to read color combinations or any of the things not to put on a resume.

• 
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  11 Creative Resume Design/CV Tips (With Template Examples for 2019)
  
  
  Grace Fussell

What Not to Include in a Resume Work History (and Other Content Blunders to
Avoid)

The work history is an especially sensitive area when it comes to what not to put on a resume. Here are some specific things to avoid:

4. Made Up Titles

Writing you’re the CEO of a company on your resume isn’t
impressive unless that company actually employs other people. Otherwise, who
are you CEO of?

Solo-owned businesses are impressive and there’s nothing wrong
with that, but the recruiter or HR manager reviewing your application would
understand it better if you called yourself a business owner or entrepreneur.
CEO doesn’t make sense unless you’re in charge of an executive team.

Job titles like Customer Happiness Officer or Client Success
Manager are understandable, and may even be official job titles your employer
uses. But will a recruiter use them when filtering candidates? Not likely.

While such job titles aren’t exactly words not to use in a
resume, they’re not the best choice if you want to get your resume found on the
ATS. 

Use the industry accepted job title in your resume. If you don’t want to
use it as the job title in your work entry, then at least include it on some of
your work history’s bullet points.

5. Including Jobs Irrelevant to Your Target Role

Only include employment history that'll contribute to your
current job search.

If you're transferring to a different industry or a different
line of work entirely you can include these jobs, but the emphasis should be on
the transferable skills you earned and not on your previous job title.

6. Including Personal Information

This tip depends on where you’re applying for a job. In the U.S.
and other Western countries, applicants aren't required to put personal
information on a resume.

Here’s a list of things
not to put on resume:

• street address


• gender


• age


• religion


• marital status


• nationality

Recruiters don’t
want to discriminate against you, but if you give them the information, their
gut reaction might not be in your favor. 

For instance, if you include your
nationality on the resume, the recruiter might wonder if you can fit in with
the company’s corporate culture or if your religious beliefs will affect your
work.

7. Work Email Address

Don’t use an
unprofessional email address like [email protected], and don’t ever use your work
email address for your job search. The recruiter might think you’re job hunting
during work hours and assume that you do a lot of personal tasks while on the
clock.

8. Personal Pictures

Don’t add a
picture of yourself on the resume as this is only appropriate for models,
actors, and performers. Including a picture of yourself makes your application
prone to the same bias that could affect a recruiter’s judgement when they read
personal details about you.

If the resume template you've downloaded includes a placeholder for a picture, simply delete it.

9. Adding Negative or Questionable Work Experience

Don’t ever include employers who fired you for poor performance,
attendance issues, or personal matters. 

If you were let go as part of a
lay-off, that’s okay because companies understand things like this happen.

Information about how and why you were let go will surface once
an employer does a background check on you, so there’s no sense including jobs
you were terminated from. However, if you just didn’t get along with your
previous boss but left the company in good standing, that's okay. You can just put another colleague or supervisor as reference.

10. Salary Details

Wondering what not to put on a resume 2019? Your salary and
compensation details is one example. According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), some U.S. states like California now have
laws that limit employers from asking this information.

Your salary history shouldn’t be included in your resume, unless
you want other recruiters to filter you because you were too expensive— or
worse, low ball you because your past salary is less than what they normally
offer.

Only discuss your past salary upon receiving a job offer, or if
the recruiter asks about your expected salary.

Check out these guides if you need help negotiating your salary:

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  How to Negotiate a Higher Salary After a New Job Offer (With Scripts)
  
  
  Charley Mendoza

12. Unnecessary Information About Previous Employers

There’s no need to include your previous employer’s exact
address. You also don’t need to disclose the exact date you joined or left the
company.

While this information isn’t exactly career-ending words you
should not use in a resume, it's a waste of space. A recruiter doesn’t need
to know this information to gauge if you've got the skills they need.

Whatever you do, never disclose your reason for leaving a company
because the recruiter might get the wrong impression about you. It’s better to
leave this discussion for the interview.

13. Personal Hobbies and Interests

Skiing, cooking, knitting, which of these isn't suggested
for writing a resume?

All of them.

Listing creative hobbies and interests in your resume is a gamble
if they’re not directly related to your job. These interests could be good
conversation starters, or they could offend the recruiter if they think it’s odd or
against their personal beliefs.

If you've got enough skill, achievements, or work experience to
easily fill a one-page resume then there’s no need to beef it up with hobbies
or interests.

14. Skills or Experience You Lack

It may seem obvious, but I’ve seen resumes where the applicant
admits to not having some of the skills needed for the job. This is a sure way
to get your resume trashed.

Avoid bringing up subjects that paint you in a negative light.
For instance, if you haven’t finished your bachelor’s degree, instead of
writing “not yet graduated,” just
list the year you expect to graduate. Changing the phrase isn’t equal to lying
or omitting information because your graduation date will still be listed.
You’re just putting a positive spin on it.  

If the job calls for sales experience, but you don’t any formal
employment in this capacity, think of ways where you sold something or
convinced someone to buy in on your idea and write about it instead.

Now that you know what not to include in a resume work history, it's time you find out what's worth including on that section:

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  How to Write Your Resume Work Experience Section Right
  
  
  Charley Mendoza

15. Skills or Experience Repeated in Multiple Work Entries

Candidates with multiple jobs in the same line of work shouldn’t
repeatedly list the same skill on multiple times on their work history. It
comes off as redundant.

It's as if you've got no other impressive accomplishments
to offer.

If your last two jobs included financial analysis, don’t list
this skill on both employment entries. Choose the job where you had an
achievement or significant project that involved financial analysis instead.
Use the bullet points in other work entries to talk about your other skills.

16. Lies

Never lie on your resume. You can get creative with your writing, but you should never stretch the truth to the point where you can’t back it up.

If you don’t speak multiple languages, don’t list it. If you had
help with a product launch or presentation, you should say so instead of
claiming it as your own. They say you should fake it ‘til you make it, but that
advice doesn’t apply to lying on your resume.

A former Yahoo CEO got ousted and publicly humiliated a few years
ago because he lied about having a computer degree on his resume, according to
a CNN report. You don’t want to be that guy. 

False claims on your resume could
lead to termination, humiliation—or worse, a lawsuit.

If you get hired despite lying on your resume, and your
employer discriminates against you later, you may find it hard to win a legal
claim against them. The employer will just turn around and say that they
wouldn’t have hired you if they knew about your fibs. 

Employment lawyers call
this after-acquired evidence, and it’s a common defense they use when trying to limit the
damages companies pay in labor lawsuits.

Writing Mistakes and Words Not to Use in a Resume

Pay particular attention to how your resume is written.

16. Rewrite Sentences with Orphan Words

Orphan words refer to a word (or two) left on a line on their own.
To save space, try revising the sentence or previous line to remove the orphan
words.  

17. Vague Phrases

Phrases that don’t give context or any explanation of what
you’ve accomplished is a disservice to your qualifications.

Compare the following sentences:

“Led a sales team of 5”

“Recruited and trained a 5-man sales team that closed over $10
million in annual sales”

The two sentences could describe the same person, but the
details included in the second example give a better context to the applicant’s
job. It’s more impressive too.

The first phrase tells the recruiter that you led a team
of five people. What did you lead them to though? What did the job entail? More
importantly, what did that team accomplish?

Vague terms like “experienced” and “professional” are high
on my list of words not to use in a resume.  Replace them with better adjectives that
describe the kind of work you do, or else a specific skill or accomplishment
that could be tied to your work.

Writing that you’re an “experienced” accountant doesn’t add to your qualifications. But if
you add words like “CPA,” or “QuickBooks,” that'll give the recruiter a
better idea of your experience.

18. Typos and Grammar Mistakes

You could’ve gotten an interview, but the recruiter was
turned off because of an incorrect verb tenses or you wrote “your” instead of
“you’re.” The sad part is this is easily avoidable.

Always read your resume out loud before sending it, so you
can spot typos and grammar errors before it costs you a job.

Below are some common grammar and spelling errors to check:

• 
  Verb tenses: “teach” vs “taught”


• 
  Subject-verb agreement: “You sell”
  vs “he/she sells”


• 
  Hyphen use: e.g. “well-balanced” and
  “record-breaking”  


• 
  Incorrect apostrophe use: “its” vs “it’s”

19. High-falutin Words

Why write “utilize” when “use” means the same thing? Why
write “synergized” when simpler, yet
equally impressive power words like “collaborated” or “partnered” are
sufficient?

Examples of Pompous Words Not to Use in a Resume:

• burgeon


• multifaceted


• amalgamated

Using big words on your resume don’t make you sound smart.
It’s a waste of space and it’s proven by a Princeton study that documents using complex words are rated less
effective compared to those with simpler words.

Now that you know the words you should not use in a resume, check out this article on power words that you should use:

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  Charley Mendoza

20. Clichés and Words You Should Not Use in a Resume

Recruiters read hundreds of resumes every day, so it makes
sense that they also see a lot of the same words they start to become clichés.
Words like “creative,” “specialize” “results-oriented” are so overused, they’re
now considered clichés on resumes and LinkedIn profiles.

Replace these words with a different, not-so-overused
synonym, or better yet, write about what makes you “creative” or
“results-oriented” instead. Read this Hubspot
article on how to replace common buzzwords found on LinkedIn profiles and
resumes.

21. Disabilities and Personal Accommodations

In the U.S., differently-abled job seekers aren’t required to disclose
their predicament, according to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). It’s also illegal for employers to discriminate against them. 

The ADA
acts protects your right to get a job as long as you've got the skills and
experience required for it.

All that said, it may be tactful to disclose this information
if your condition may impact your performance or if you might need special
accommodations at work. 

Don’t disclose it on your resume though. Do it on the interview,
preferably after you dazzle the interviewer with your skills and experience.
This way, employers can make the necessary adjustments to help, but you’re not
giving them a chance to discriminate against you before you even meet.

When asked about your condition and how it may affect your
performance, an article on Maryland Online University about disability
suggests, “Providing your own practical
suggestions for job accommodations is a great way of showing your commitment
and willingness to meet the requirements of the job.” 

For instance, if you've got a hearing impairment, you may want to ask for a desk phone that vibrates
instead of rings.

Check out the article from Maryville University for
more suggestions on how to disclose disabilities, and different practical
accommodations you can suggest depending on your condition. 

Make a Great Resume in 30 Minutes or Less with a Template

With a pre-made resume template, you don’t have to worry
about the spacing, layout, or fonts in your resume. You’ll have more time to
concentrate on writing an amazing application that sums up your professional
experience and intrigues the recruiter enough to give you an interview.

Check out Envato Elements and GraphicRiver to see hundreds of resume and cover letter
templates that you can choose from. 

In a hurry? These two articles include a round-up of the
best resume templates offered at Envato and Graphic River:

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  20 Modern Resume Templates With Clean (Elegant) CV Designs (2019)
  
  
  
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• 
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  25 Simple (CV) Resume Templates (Easy to Customize & Edit Quickly)
  
  
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Remove What Doesn’t Work

Is your resume done? Good.

Go over it again and see if it still contains any of the
resume blunders listed above.

Once you’re done, give it another review, this time asking
yourself, “Will this
sentence/skill/qualification/ improve my chances of getting that job?”
Remove or replace information that doesn’t pass that test.

If you're having a hard time deleting this information, remember that it's equally important to consider what not to include in a resume because that information can affect your application too. 

Create or Improve Your Resume Today

You've just learned over 20 things not to put on a resume. If you're creating or improving your resume, review this list before you finalize it.

And remember, a high-quality resume template from Envato Elements or GraphicRiver will help you create a professional-looking resume quickly.

Good luck on your job search!