by Paige Miller
Your resume serves as a snapshot of what you can offer an organization or company. Since hiring managers only spend about six seconds looking at a resume, you don’t want it to be watered down with extraneous information. So how can you maximize your resume space? Start by excluding things that shouldn’t be there in the first place:
1) An objective statement – Objective statements are outdated. You don’t want a hiring manager spending a few of their precious seconds reviewing your resume reading about what you want – you want them to learn about what you have to offer. You can spend your cover letter explaining why you want the job and why you are a perfect fit.
2) A list of every job you have ever held – Consider which of your former positions are most relevant to the job you are applying for. Prioritize the positions that are most recent and the ones that helped you gain experience and skills that you can apply to your prospective job.
3) References – Checking references is usually one of the very last steps in the hiring process. If you make it that far, the hiring manager will ask you for references. Don’t even include the term “References available upon request” – this is an obvious statement that takes up valuable space on your resume (and it can also make your resume seem outdated).
Extra tip: Consider including a link to your LinkedIn profile so hiring managers can learn more about you if they want more information. Make sure you set up a customized public profile URL to make the link simple and easy to access. Learn more about using social media for your job search in our April 2014 post titled “Tips for Job Hunting in the Digital Age”.
