7 things you should remove from your resume

Writing a resume can be hard; updating it after a long time can be even harder.

My co-worker always says “It’s not a static document”. Your resume is something that should be constantly updated, always changing and growing. Whenever you do something new at work, update your resume.

It may seem strange, even if you’re not looking for a new job and are very happy in your current role, but when it comes round to finding something new for whatever reason, you’ll be happy you did it when you did.

According to a recent article on msn.com, there are 7 things you don’t need on your resume for various reasons. Take a look below to see what the experts say; some may surprise you.

·         Your GPA in school

If you were valedictorian of your university and graduated with Phi Beta Kappa, you could make a note of that. But a GPA from 10 years ago is just not relevant anymore. The main thing is, is that you passed. Sometimes making a note of this can also appear that you have poor judgment about what is relevant.

·         Classes you’ve taken

Unless your classes have an impact on your career goals (listing yoga teacher training and wanting to become a yoga teacher) then the specific classes you’ve taken are probably not going to be important or of interest to a potential new employer.

·         Languages you speak

This one shocked me. I always think knowing another language is important and a useful skill, however, “SheKnows” says that unless it’s relevant to your job then it’s not important to have on your resume.

·         Summer internships

Unless you’re very new to the job market and internships are your only experience then summer internships fall into the category of completely irrelevant. Having these on your resume may show your lack in judgement about what’s relevant and useful now.

·         References

Most people don’t list their references on their resume, if anything, most people just put “Reference available upon request” but to be honest, you don’t even need to do this. All employers will ask for references if they are considering you for a role and who would refuse to provide them if they wanted the job?

·         The number of years of experience you have

You don’t need to put that you have “15 years’ experience within the Financial Services industry”, employers will be able to see this from the dates on your resume. Also, if you were employed over a decade ago as a researcher but have not worked in that field for the past 15 years, there’s no need to count all your working years as “years of experience” in an executive summary.

·         Your gradation dates

Unfortunately, age discrimination is a real thing, as sad as it is. Therefore, unless you graduated recently, there is no need to put your dates on your resume. Your experience should talk for itself.

Making sure you tailor your resume to the specific job you want is important. That doesn’t mean removing jobs off your resume, but you can edit the experience in order to highlight the skills you have that are relevant to the role you want. In addition, taking the above into consideration could really help you sell yourself!

Good luck.