Creating a resume is one of the hardest tasks that college students face. It feels impossible to cram your entire life story onto just one page and present it in a way that says "hire me!" without looking too desperate. What's more — hiring managers often spend less than 30 seconds looking at the resume you spent countless hours slaving over! What can you do to make it past that initial glance and avoid the "no pile?" Check out these 25 ways to make your resume more visually appealing and improve your chances of landing the job.
1. Your photo
Unless the company explicitly asks for your photo, do not include it. Photos take up unnecessary space, add no useful information, and make the resume look tacky. If the employer wants to see what you look like that badly, they will request an interview.
2. An objective
Objectives are old and outdated. Obviously, your objective in applying for this job is to get said job. Duh. Space on a resume is precious real estate, and you don't want to waste it on redundant blocks of text that add no substance.
3. More than one phone number
The point of a resume is to talk about your experience and skills, not to list every possible way to get in contact with you. One phone number, either your cell phone or home phone will do just fine.
4. Outright lies
No matter how good you look on paper, your potential employer will drop you like a hot potato if they find out you lied on your resume. This is why they check your references. A good rule of thumb is that you should not put anything on your resume that you wouldn't be comfortable reading aloud to your old supervisors.
5. An unprofessional email address
Nothing says "I am unprofessional" like an email address smilesandunicorns@yahoo.com or racecardriver007@gmail.com. If you don't already have a professional email address, it takes just a few minutes to set one up and it's completely free.
6. Irrelevant work experiences
Hiring managers are looking to see if your resume matches the experience listed in the job ad. Do not waste precious space on your resume listing out experience that is irrelevant. For example, if you are applying for a marketing associate position, do not include your summer job as a lifeguard.
7. Third person voice
Third person voice in a resume is annoying and unprofessional. Instead of saying "Rachel wrote weekly blog posts," write "Wrote weekly blog posts." Using the third person takes up too much space and makes you look weird. Don't do it.
8. Too much text
When writing a resume it's easy to want to cram it with as much text as possible. Do not do this. Avoid it at all costs. Your margins should be no smaller than .7 inches— drop below that and you risk having too little white space. An overload of text makes your resume appear unappealing and could force you into the "no pile" before the hiring manager even begins to read it.
9. Images, charts, and graphs
These may be appropriate in writing samples, but they definitely do not belong on your resume. Images, charts, and graphs take up too much space and usually have very little added benefit.
10. Jobs you were fired from
During interviews, hiring managers will often ask about your job experiences and why you left them. You do not want to put yourself in a position where you have to tell them you got fired. If they explicitly ask you to disclose any information about being fired from a job in the past you should be honest, but if they do not ask there is no reason to bring it up on your own.
11. Extra pages
There is no need to have a resume over 1 page, especially if you're in college or a recent graduate. No one except your grandmother cares that much about your life. Keep it short and sweet to avoid getting thrown into the "no pile."
12. Too many bullets
Bullets are used for emphasis. If everything is bulleted, then nothing stands out. Use bullets sparingly to get the full effect. Try to keep the number of bullets per job description to 3 or 4 tops.
13. Short-term job experiences
With the exception of internships, do not include short-term employment on your resume. More than likely it is not relevant to the position you're applying to. Including it makes it look like you are just desperate to fill space.
14. Your hobbies
Keep in mind that you are applying for a job, not creating a profile for Match.com. Unless you were captain of your soccer team and raised $10,000 to create soccer camps for under-privileged kids in Central America, you're better off not including in your resume that you enjoy soccer. Talking about hobbies during interviews is fine, but they have no place on your resume.
15. Reasons you left companies
This takes up extra space that could be used for something more useful. If your interviewer cares why you left a job, they will ask. Otherwise, do not include it.
16. Serif fonts
This is a somewhat controversial topic with people arguing both for and against the use of serif fonts like Times New Roman. To be on the safe side and avoid looking outdated, don't use these fonts. Instead, go for something simple and easy to ready like Calibri or Ariel.
17. Full addresses for jobs
Again, this takes up too much space and limits your ability to include other more pertinent information. Listing the city is fine, but do not go all out with the full mailing address.
*Special thanks to Cheat Sheet, The Muse, and LinkedIn for their contributions to this article*
