Bad Resume Advice You Should Ignore

Today, you can find a bunch of tips and articles on the query “How to write a resume?” or “What to include on your resume?”. However, many of these tips are harmful myths that can adversely affect you. Our online resume service often encounters the most common “bad advice.” And so we decided to make a separate article about which instructions should be ignored.

Read More: Why Do You Need a Great Resume?

1. “Be Sure to Use an Objective Statement.”

Although this advice may sometimes be relevant, this format is outdated. It will be much better if you briefly describe what you are worth. HRs immediately understand who they are dealing with and whether they continue to read the document. Objective statements can limit your ideas. Moreover, the recruiter may be completely confused because the objective may not correspond to what the desired job requires from you.

Still, if you wish to express your desire and show your goal, then it is best to do this in a cover letter. It is one of the main features of this oeuvre.

2. “Always Stick to a One-page Format.”

Brevity is the soul of talent, which is why many people think that the smaller the resume, the more likely your document will be read and appreciated. But what if there is too much information, or you have something to say, and it will really be meaningful?

The truth is that too much information will make the resume less readable. It becomes very overloaded with various details that may not even be related to the position. It happens that candidates enter all the information about themselves, “just in case.” Such a resume is not what recruiters would like to see.

Too little information can create a kind of an understatement though. Sometimes it’s just not possible to fit everything into one page. However, to strike a balance and write just the right amount of writing, plan your resume. As you refine this plan, you find (or delete) the correct information for the document.

Related: How Long Should a Resume Be?

3. “Use a Unique Design.”

Sometimes it may seem that creativity helps you stand out from other candidates, but this is by no means the case. Recruiters prefer a classic, streamlined design.

Of course, this does not apply to creative professions. If you want to apply for a creative position, using an appealing, eye-catching format is an excellent idea. But in other cases, it clearly doesn’t work.

A good design tip is to optimize your resume. Remove multi-colored lines, underlining, and bold type where it’s not needed. Besides, the variety of colors in your resume makes it unreadable in the eyes of HRs since this format is very inconvenient.

4. “Don’t Show Gaps In Your Career.”

A recruiter might indeed consider a career break or a short-term job as a red flag. Therefore, some candidates prefer to hide gaps using one trick. They do not indicate the exact date of the beginning and end of work in a particular position. Instead, they show only the year.

However, the technique will not deceive the candidate tracking system. It simply won’t recognize your formatting and will automatically change it, which can cause even more questions to the HR manager. For example, if you specify the years of work as 2015-2015, the ATS system will automatically reformat this wording into “from January 1, 2015, to January 1, 2015”. It confuses absolutely everyone.

In that case, it’s best, to be honest. Recruiters won’t like it if a candidate they haven’t even seen yet starts lying. It is better to write everything as it is. You can specify the reasons for your “break” in the cover letter. Likewise, you will probably be asked about this in an interview.

5. “Outsmart the PBX System.”

Now several platforms aim to make your resume more ATS-friendly by finding keywords in a job vacancy. These are Word Cloud platforms like TagCrowd or WordItOut.

The idea itself might be a good one. However, the service itself is not the best assistant. Because it can’t identify the essential keywords from the job posting thus, the platform will highlight the most important or what occurs most often. This is not the correct option too. You may stumble upon a stream of useless information, parasite words, and so on. That doesn’t only not deceive the ATS system, but it also adds even more work to you.

6. “Upload Your Resume In PDF Format.”

This tip may seem quite helpful. The thing is that by uploading your document in PDF format, you can be sure that you will save the desired look of your paper. PDF eliminates the risk of formatting errors that may appear depending on the browser, text editor, etc. And if you’re sending the file directly to the hiring manager, the tip might work.

However, candidates go through the ATS in most cases so PDF formatting can be a big mistake. The system immediately transfers the information to the candidate’s profile, and since the PDF file is not the best option for the ATS, a lot of your data may be lost or not transferred.

The easiest and surest option is to use the DOC or DOCX format.

Related: Resume Format Guide

7. “Send Your Resume Everywhere You Can.”

Such advice also exists. However, no one specifies that only a customized resume should be sent out. Different job descriptions have entirely different requirements and keywords. Thus, companies will ignore you if you send the same document to everyone. Recruiters are quick to notice when a document doesn’t fit the company’s requirements, and they’ll decide you don’t want the position that much.

If you really decide to send your resume to several companies at once, then make sure to change the information in your document to meet specific requirements.

8. “All Information Is Important.”

We have already mentioned this advice a little above about not writing absolutely everything about yourself. It applies to:

• Volunteering
• Courses
• Internships

If you think that this information has nothing to do with the position you are applying for, it is better to cross it right away. Make sure the recruiter gets a relevant date that best describes your skills.

Bottom Line

We hope that this article will help you isolate yourself from bad advice. Writing a resume yourself is always a difficult task with many nuances and pitfalls. It is almost impossible to extract the essentials from all the resume information on the Internet. It is also essential to be aware that trends are constantly changing, and therefore the information may no longer be up to date. ResumeEdge is the service that is always ready to help you. We follow up-to-date trends and are always prepared to give only the best advice.