Five things you should STOP putting in your resume

We all know the importance of a resume in launching a career or even later, but the task of crafting a good resume can be daunting even for accomplished professionals.

For the next time you build a new resume from scratch, Erica Rivera, a Chicago-based senior recruiter at Google who has reviewed thousands of resumes, has a piece of advice for you on a few things that you need to stop including in it.

Stop including your full address

“We don’t need your full address. Only city and state are needed,” says Rivera in a social media post.

Delete objective statement

Rivera, who has screened thousands of resumes,  says the objective statement on your resume “Gotta Go”.  Instead use your resume to highlight things like accomplishments, relevant skills, experience etc that demonstrate your value as a candidate, she advises.

Prune work history

Including every single position you have held in your entire life is not needed.

Rivera says what you need to focus on is “tailoring your resume and experience to the position you’re applying for”.

Delete weak action verbs like “responsible for” or “helped”

The senior Google recruiter advises against using weak action verbs like “I held”, “I was responsible for” and instead recommends considering "streamlined", "implemented", "executed", "improved", "strategised", "increased", "produced" and "generated".

Don’t include references

You don’t need to include your references or the note “references available upon request” as a company will ask you if they need your references, says Rivera, who also went viral on TikTok recently for sharing these five important tips in resumes to make them more attractive.