Wrong Career Advice You should Never Follow

In today’s labour market, targeted talent acquisition is widely used for recruitment. That means your social media profiles (for example, LinkedIn and Twitter) should include terms that represent the skills that companies in your field value the most. Regardless of these developments, a strong CV is still an important part of any successful professional development strategy.

Consider your CV to be a marketing product aimed to persuade your next employer that you are the right fit for them. If you’re depending on inaccurate, out-of-date resume advice, your resume won’t be able to fulfil this task properly. The following “timeless” resume ideas may no longer be relevant in today’s employment market and may potentially work against you.

1. A resume shouldn’t be more than one page lengthy (mostly wrong)

   According to study, two-page resumes are more appealing to hiring managers than one-page ones. Not only do hiring managers spend more time reviewing lengthier resumes, but applicants with longer resumes are also more likely to receive interview invitations and job offers.

However, senior-level employees should strive to keep their resumes to two pages or less, unless they are seeking for an executive-level role. Junior-level job candidates, particularly recent grads with little to no real-world work experience and few academic or volunteer achievements, should stick to one-pagers.

2. All of your contact information, including your mailing address, should be listed in the header (wrong)

Including street addresses, fax numbers, or landlines in your header is bad resume advice. However, you should keep your metro region, including state and ZIP code, in your resume header so that recruiters checking for vicinity don’t rule you out.

Replace your old email addresses with a professional Gmail or Outlook address. If you’re entire name is already in use, substitute something related to your profession, such as johnsmithmarketing@outlook.com. Make sure your contact information contains your LinkedIn profile URL and that it is personalised with your name.

3. Set out your goals right away (wrong)

Using an objective statement on your resume can date it. Instead, include a professional description that highlights your most relevant job experience and educational background after your header and contact information. This summary can be tailored to include the most pertinent keywords for each job you seek.

Summary statements also allow you to label yourself using terminology directly from the job posting. If the job description calls for a “marketing professional,” for example, your synopsis should begin with those same words: “Marketing professional with 10 years’ experience overseeing successful national product launches and rebranding efforts.” After this descriptive opening remark, provide four to five of your most valuable characteristics in bullet form.

4. Specify Your Dates of Graduation and Overall Grade Point Average (it depends)

   If you are over the age of 40, you may omit your college graduation dates. (You should also check to see if your school’s official name has changed and update it accordingly.)

If you are a recent graduate with a GPA greater than 3.0, you should highlight it, particularly if you have not received any additional honours or participated in many internships. You can substitute your major GPA for your total GPA if it is greater. However, after a few years of experience, your college GPA is no longer really significant outside of academics.

5. Detailed work history with dates of employment should be included in your resume.

If you are a senior-level professional, this may be the most crucial resume tip you should disregard. Unless you are applying for a position as an executive or director, limit your work history to the last 10-15 years, and utilise an accomplishments section to emphasise any career successes outside of that time frame.

Let’s say you’ve been with the same firm for 32 years and have had three different titles in the past 15 years. Remove any job titles before your three most recent ones and simply list the dates you were employed at each. Some of the more mundane skills could be cut. A resume is meant to be a summary of your most impressive professional achievements rather than a detailed history of your whole work life.

Once you’ve created a resume that avoids obsolete mistakes, be sure to update your LinkedIn profile to reflect it, taking advantage of the platform’s many tools to elaborate on the story you’ve given. Next, consider creating a social media presence that showcases your perspective and experience in your field—because the most antiquated piece of resume advice is that a good one is all you need to get the job you want.

So, where can you go for current advice and formatting examples? Try LiveCareer’s resume samples, where readers can browse a comprehensive library of modern CV examples sorted by industry, as well as cutting-edge resume guidance from recruiters and HR specialists. LiveCareer also provides a free resume and cover letter builder (to help you construct that other crucial job application document in no time at all).