An average recruiter will spend less than 10 seconds reviewing a resume. Having said that, it’s important for candidates to list only the essentials on their resume. These are 4 things you should leave OFF the resume!
Objective
Leave this out. 9 times out of 10, the objective is “looking for growth within a company for the foreseeable future” or something along those lines. Guess what, so is everyone else. Your resume needs to set you apart from the herd. It’s just a long shot that the hiring manager will say “I loved their objective, let’s bring them in”. I’m not sure I have ever heard an account manager tell one of our recruiters that the Objective is a ‘must-have’ on a resume. It’s wordy, and not needed. Next.
Tasks and Duties
Don’t point out the obvious. If your title is Outside Sales Rep, please don’t put:
- Responsible for identifying key business opportunities in my territory
- Daily customer contact with excellent customer service
We, as sales recruiters, understand that’s what you’re hired to do. Unless you’re able to add something that wasn’t on the default job description, such as:
- Supervising a team of 8-12 sales reps
- As team leader, assisted my group with client calls and visits
This will help especially if it’s a sales management position you’re applying for.
Anything that will provide unknown value to the resume is always good. Repeating your job description, no good.
Personal Information
No need to tell the story of how you and your wife or husband met. No need to report about your children. Often times, in sales, families are considered a distraction. While some may think, “the candidate has a family, so he’ll work hard to provide for them” which is not far from accurate, it’s often times thought that a sales rep needs to be a road warrior and will be away from the family more than 35% of the time. In other words, don’t give anyone a reason to disqualify you before you even meet them!
One Page
Remember. You have less than 10 seconds to get noticed. What could you possibly put on the second page of a resume that the recruiter would look at and say “glad I got to page 2”. Limit your professional experience to the past 10 years or 1 full page. The lone exception is when prior experience could prove extremely valuable to your potential employer.
It’s simple, leave out the fluffy stuff and get right to important info: found here.
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