Things that you may want to leave off your resume

Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Fri, Nov 27 2009 | 1 Comment

Resumes are the first way that employers get a glimpse of you and your accomplishments. However, some accomplishments are greater than others and there are some that aren’t so great to put on a resume to begin with.

Some of the things that you should think twice about putting on your resume include:

No-so-great accomplishments such a a bad GPA and under achiever statuses. If you graduated college with a 2.3 GPA, then it is probably something you should want to leave off your resume. You should try to let work experience shine above that. Also, don’t put things on your resume such as you “get along” with other coworkers, not only is that not able to be evaluated in a unbiased manner but it is also not exactly noteworthy and is easily deemed as a under-achiever type of accomplishment.

Don’t put things on your resume that can’t be measured such as “most talented” or “I’m awesome.” Not only can those not be measured but they really should be left off because they make you sound a bit like a arrogant jerk. Also, an accomplishment talking about what a client said about you should really be left for the potential employer to find out when he or she checks your references.

Also, while it may be quite a feat, a potential employer is likely not to pick you for an interview knowing that one of your most proud accomplishments is your ability to win eating contests or other really off beat contests. You have to keep in mind that luck cannot also be considered an accomplishment. While it might be neat that you won lots of loot off a radio contest, that is just luck and won’t help you get ahead in your job.

Most of these are just kind of obvious things that should be left off of resumes, but there wouldn’t be articles about this topic if it didn’t actually happen from time to time. I have actually seen some pretty funny stuff on applications myself including people claiming jobs that I know they never had and references that included the President of the United States.

I suppose the most important thing to remember for a resume is to be honest but to definitely play down any negative things or holes in it. So…you did graduate with a 2.0 GPA, well if you have a lot more positive attributes, that can be overlooked and left out of resumes altogether. Your resume is your chance to impress your potential boss before you get a chance to give an interview.

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Tags: radio contest, president of the united states, work experience