What About Jobs Where I Got Fired
This is another question where the answer is it depends. If it became clear early on that the job wasnt for you or that you had a personality clash with the boss, theres no need to include it. This is especially true if the experience does not apply to the work you seek now.
If you were fired from a long-term position, definitely put the job on your resume. Do not say you were fired, but be prepared to answer the question, Why did you leave this job? There are a couple of ways to handle this question. The big no-no is lying. You may choose to gloss over the reason by saying that you were looking for new opportunities, but remember that your former employer may reveal that you were terminated during a reference check. Thus, your best bet is honest.
How honest do you have to be when explaining your termination? Our answer is briefly honest. No need to go into detail. Alison Green offers these short explanations in The Cut:
Actually, I was let go. Thats on me I took a job that required pretty advanced design skills, which frankly I dont have. I thought Id be able to get up to speed quickly, but I underestimated how much Id need to learn. They made the right call, and I was relieved to get back to editing.
Just for Inspiration
*Source: Business Insider
Spelling Punctuation And Grammatical Errors
Always double-check the spelling on your CV. Ensure you are writing in the correct tense and if you are using the third person, stick to it throughout the document. Avoid Americanisms and use the spell-check. If you struggle to spot mistakes, ask a careers professional, mentor or friend to look over your CV or use spell-checking software like Grammarly.
What To Include In Your Resume
Now that you know what not to include in your resume, take a second look at your resume to make sure it includes all the right elements to effectively tell your story and market your qualifications. Click on the following link to learn what 11 pieces of information every professional should include in a resume.
Not sure if your resume includes any of these mistakes? Let us help! Take advantage of TopResume’s free critique today!
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College Graduation Date On Resume
There is no need to include your college graduation date unless you’re a recent college graduate. Here’s an example of college listed on a resume without dates:
Bachelor of Arts in EnglishUniversity of New York
Here’s an example of a college graduation date listed on a resume:
Bachelor of Arts in English, 2020University of New York
Many people choose to drop their graduation date from their resume when the degree was earned 10 years prior. If you are worried about age discrimination, leaving off this information is a good way to shield your age.
Consider Omitting A Job From Your Resume If
- It is a short-term position
If you had a job for a few months or less, the experience isnt relevant to the position you are applying for, and youre not short of work experience overall, it probably isnt necessary to include the job. If you are writing a student resume or an entry-level resume and are short of experience it is often necessary to include short-term positions.
- The job was in the distant past
Employers are generally only interested in the last five to ten years of your work history. If your recent positions contain consecutive, relevant positions, employers will not be concerned about jobs in the distant past. They add no weight to your resume.
- Your old company has a toxic reputation
If the company you worked for is notorious for whatever reason, maybe for unethical practice or a high-profile bankruptcy, it could look bad to include the position on your resume. Rightly or wrongly, employers may judge you through association. However, the role may be central to your resume and impossible to leave off.
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List Different Positions Separately
Promotions illustrate that your company realized your worth and offered you more responsibility. Even lateral moves indicate your employer recognized your diverse talents. Instead of grouping all of your positions under one heading, give your positions individual descriptions along with distinct time periods. Reinforce your internal mobility with terms such as promoted to or selected by CEO to assist with a new department startup.
If youve been in the same position for your entire tenure, show how youve grown in this position and made a difference to the organization. To jog your memory, think about how your current job duties differ from when you first started.
Always Include Experience That Is Relevant To The Job You Are Applying For
When creating your job list, remember to prioritize experiences and skills that are relevant to the specific job opening. For example, you may have volunteered for an organization or held an internship that gave you more relevant experience than your first job. In that case, always choose to highlight the more relevant information.
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Looking For Your Next Job Now
At the end of the day, your resume is a marketing document. Its purpose is to showcase why you’re the best possible candidate for the job youâve applied to. Itâs not a legally binding document that has to list the minutia of your work history down to your high school record and part-time jobs. Sometimes, making cuts is essential to create the best possible narrative!
Resume Example And Template
This is an example of a resume with earlier jobs listed as additional experience. or see the text version below.
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANTProviding confidential and diversified administrative support to C-level executivesHighly organized and personable Executive Assistant well-versed in meeting and event coordination, calendaring and appointment scheduling, reception, correspondence drafting, and travel planning.
Creative and skilled in using Microsoft Office Suite and Adobe Creative Cloud to develop dynamic corporate communications materials, newsletters, and presentations.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
ABC ENTERPRISES, Tampa, FloridaEXECUTIVE ASSISTANT Meticulously perform executive administrative functions for C-level officers of global development group. Schedule and supervise team of five administrative assistants and receptionists make all arrangements for travel, public and stakeholder relations functions, conferences, and meetings. Notable accomplishments:
- Spearheaded offices transition to cloud-based corporate communications technologies.
- Successfully negotiated cost-effective contracts with vendors, caterers, resorts, and other service providers that reduced annual costs by more than $25K.
- Orchestrated all details for major stockholder events including annual meetings, golf tournaments, and receptions.
- Set up and administered CEOs social media presence on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
EDUCATION & CREDENTIALS
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Soft Skills In A Skills Section
If youre going to have a skills section on your resume, it should be focused on hard skills and competenciesnot soft skills, says Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter, executive resume writer and owner of Dallas-based coaching firm Career Trend. Soft skills are important, but I would weave them into the work experience portion, Barrett-Poindexter says. So where can you really lean in to your soft skills? Your cover letter.
More Than 15 Years Of Experience
When you start including jobs from before 2000, you will lose the hiring manager’s interest.
Your most relevant experience should be from the past 15 years, so hiring managers only need to see that, .
On the same note, never include dates on education and certifications that are older than 15 years.
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Distracting Boxes And Borders
Alyssa Gelbard, founder of New York branding and consulting firm Point Road Group, told Business Insider that an over stylized resume chock full of borders, boxes, shading, and italics gets visually distracting for a reader.
“As a result, key details and messaging can get lost, which impacts the impression you make on a potential employer or key contact,” Gelbard said.
Jacquelyn Smith, Vivian Giang, Caroline Hroncich, and Natalie Walters contributed to earlier versions of this article.
Should I Put Expected Salary In My Resume
Employers usually have a salary in mind for their potential new hire. Including your expected salary would only give the impression that youre only after money or youre too expensive for them to employ. The only time it is appropriate to put your expected salary in your resume is when they ask for it.
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Additional Relevant Accomplishments And Volunteer Work
The last section to consider adding to your resume is a shortlist of any other relevant accomplishments or volunteer work. Only include those that are relevant or that may help create a better picture of who you are as an individual as related to the position youre applying for. If youre not sure what information may be a fit for this section, re-read the job descriptions that interest you. Consider if you have any experiences outside of the professional history you already added which may help employers understand your qualifications.
Here is an example of what your accomplishments and volunteer work section could look like:
Volunteer firefighter, 20102012
Resume Reference Page Example
Check out this properly formatted resume references example to see what a references list looks like in practice:
Note that in this example, the candidate matches the style of her reference page to her resume design.
If you need to include a list of references with your resume, be sure to match the formatting to the rest of your application.
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Elaborate Formats And Designs
When it comes to selecting a design for your resume, less is more. Not only do elaborate designs and unconventional formats confuse most applicant tracking systems, but they also annoy recruiters who are accustomed to quickly scanning a resume for specific information they expect to find in particular spots within the document. Don’t make recruiters hunt for the information they care about. Play it safe and stick to a clean resume design with a clear hierarchy. Not sure what works? Check out TopResume’s library of free resume samples.
More Soft Skills Than Hard Skills
As mentioned earlier, employers have a preference for seeing hard skills on a resume. The right place to highlight soft skills is your cover letter or in an interview, where you can better demonstrate communication skills, interpersonal skills, active listening, and more.
So as you review your resume, its a problem if you find many soft skills but few hard skills and job-related skills.
In fact, you should be looking to highlight these job-related skills in practically every resume section, starting with your resume summary paragraph.
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Resumes Vs Job Applications
Don’t confuse your resume with an employment application. A resume is a document you create. There are few things that you are required to include on your resume , and there are no employment laws which dictate that you must include all your work experiences whether short- or long-term.
A job application is different. If the application indicates that you must list all your recent work experiences, then you should probably include all your jobs, including short-term engagements. Otherwise, an employer might discover that you have withheld information when they conduct a background check.
Resumes allow you much more flexibility and should be considered as summaries of your most relevant experiences.
However, you should be prepared to explain why you haven’t included a short-term experience if the employer raises the question.
How Many Years Of Experience Should You Include
How should you decide what to include? If you are uncertain how many years of experience to include on your resume, let the job posting be your guide. If a job requires 20 years of experience, for example, you’ll want to include more than 10 – 15 years of work history.
Include positions from earlier in your career that are relevant to the role you are applying for.
It’s acceptable to include 10 – 15 years of experience on your resume. In many industries, sharing experience that dates back more than 15 years just isn’t very helpful for hiring managers. It doesn’t support your candidacy to share an experience with tools and technology that are no longer in use.
Plus, when you have many years of experience, listing it all can flag you as an older job seeker to employers.
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Should You List All Jobs On Your Resume The Answer
Whether you have been working for a long time or have started recently, and are now mapping out your resume, you may be wondering if all your experience belongs on it.
Many assume that their chances of selection are increased if they list everything theyve ever done, but that can be the contrary.
Here is when you should and should not list all your jobs on your resume.
Add Relevant Information For Each Job
Even if you don’t create a brand new document for each position, you should at least make an effort to tailor your resume to the specific role. Recruiters want to know that you really want the job and you are not just blanketing the internet with resumes for every job listing. This means that if you have numerous years of experience in other unrelated fields, you may want to choose to focus only on those that directly relate to your desired role or field. In this case, you can either leave these other positions off your resume entirely or list them in a separate section. You can title these sections Related Experience and Other Experience. This way the hiring manager can easily get an overview of your relevant professional experience without getting bogged down in non-essential info.
- Lie or embellish
- List irrelevant jobs, especially if your resume is getting long
On other hand, if you’re a recent graduate or don’t have much professional experience, you’ll want to list all of the experience that you do have. This goes for any work you did during high school or college, internships, volunteer work and even summer jobs. It does not have to be full-time work. Even part-time experience is better than no experience. Your prospective employer will want to see proof that you’ve previously worked in some capacity, no matter how minor or unrelated.
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How To Determine How Many Jobs To List On A Resume
One of the most impactful elements of your resume is your work history. A memorable and concise overview of your relevant experience will help convince hiring managers of your professional capabilities and potential. To make a good impression on your resume’s readers, you will need to include an effective number of job titles in your work history list. In this article, we will discuss why you should be aware of how many jobs to include, how to determine how many jobs to list and some tips for how to format your work history correctly.
Use The Job Listing As A Guide
It’s always advisable to tailor your resume to fit the job you’re applying for, especially when listing your skills and experience. When writing your job history, take a close look at the job listing and see if it mentions an experience requirement.
If the employer is looking for applicants with six to eight years of relevant experience, for example, your ideal job history list would cover somewhere between eight and ten years. If you only have six years of work experience, you can also include volunteer opportunities or internships to demonstrate other expertise you’ve gained in the field.
If the job listing requires fewer years of experience than you possess, you have the freedom to eliminate one or more jobs from your list. Consider cutting the entry-level job from early in your career or dropping your recent volunteer position from the list. If you use the specific job listing as your inspiration, it should be easy for you to decide which jobs will make the best impression on your reader.
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Have You Been With One Employer For Many Years Here Are Seven Ways To Use Your Long Tenure As A Selling Point On Your Resume
Seven Tips to Leverage Long-Term Employment on Your Resume
Job seekers often worry how to handle job-hopping and long periods of unemployment on their resumes. But occasionally, someone asks the flip side: how to handle long-term employment with one company. With so much disruption in the labor force and many workers eager to jump at better jobs, employees who stay with one company for a significant amount of time may wonder, Am I a dinosaur? The answer, of course, is no. The key is to present your long-term work history as a positive attribute, proof youre in for the long haul. Recruiting a new employee is an expensive endeavorcompanies are always looking for ways to promote long-term tenureso demonstrate you are a worthwhile investment. If you would like to use your solid work history as a selling point, here are seven ways to enhance your resume:
Resume Summary Or Objective
Your resume summary or objective should be a short, one to two sentence section that briefly explains who you are and why youre qualified. Carefully review the job posting for clues on which of your technical and soft skills will be most important and relevant.
Resume summaries and objectives are slightly different, and you should choose to include one or both depending on your background and the position youre seeking. A resume summary will describe your work experience, while a resume objective will state your short-term goals.
A summary is good if you have at least some work experience that can be quickly summarized. An objective statement, however, is better suited for those who have recently graduated from high school or college, or who otherwise have limited job experience.
Your resume summary could say:
Thoughtful construction laborer with over five years of experience helping manage teams toward successful and safe completion of housing projects.
Your resume objective could say:
Recent graduate eagerly looking to expand construction labor experience with a growing contractor.
In both your resume section and your summary, its important to avoid talking about topics more suited to a job interview, such as how much youre hoping to earn.
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