Think of your resume as a snapshot of your career, and a tool to help you get to an interview. A resume alone will not get you the job, but it will help you get through the first step of the application process. The key to creating an effective resume is presenting a document that highlights your value and illustrates why you’d be a good hire. If your resume is filled with unnecessary information, it can be hard for the reader to see your value. Here’s how to streamline your resume.
Remove unnecessary education information
Unless you’re fresh out of school, it’s likely that you can remove a good amount of education information from your resume. The following information is meant for people who are not currently in school:
If you’ve had at least one job since graduating, you can remove your graduation date. Including a graduation date can actually work against you. It could lead people to think that you’re inexperienced if it’s very recent, or that you’re overqualified if you graduated a long time ago. It’s best to just include your degree and not the date.
If you’ve had at least one job since graduating, you can remove scholarship information or honors such as Dean’s List. These are big accomplishments while you’re in school, but once you’re in the job market, your work experience is more important.
Unless you’re applying to a job where your work experience is unrelated and you want to show that you are knowledgeable in the subject, remove related coursework. Note: This is for higher education classes, not specialized training or certifications. You should always include certifications and specialized training on your resume.
Get rid of the fluff
When you want to streamline your resume, it is essential to get rid of the fluff (unnecessary information). The easiest way to determine what information you can cut is to evaluate if the information highlights your value.
Are you listing a general responsibility just for the sake of listing it, or does it articulate what you’ve accomplished and what you bring to the table? If it doesn’t add value, remove it.
For example, look at the following two sentences:
“Maintained awareness of industry trends and solutions…”
“Integrated strategic product enhancements and innovations to support business strategy…”
If both of the above sentences are listed on your resume, you can get rid of the first sentence, “maintained awareness…” because it doesn’t add value. The second sentence infers that you’re aware of industry innovations, so there’s no need for both sentences. Removing the first sentence will help you streamline your resume.
If you have held multiple jobs at the same company, you only have to list the company once
This is an easy way to streamline your resume and remove additional information to reduce clutter. If you’ve held multiple jobs at the same company, the same company name does not need to be listed over and over again, instead, format your resume like this:
Company
Job Title [date – date]
Job description…
Job title [date – date]
Job description…
This will help you keep your resume clean and clutter free. If you continually rewrite the company name, you’re just using up precious space.
__________
When you are trying to streamline your resume, it’s important to keep three things in mind. Remove excess education information, remove information or responsibilities that don’t add value, and only write the company name once if you’ve held multiple jobs there.