While I have a documented history of working on resumes to secure individuals five-figure raises, positions with better companies, and/or jobs in a new industry, I still hold some unconventional resume opinions. Creating a resume in line with my controversial resume opinions will not necessarily secure you a job or allow you to seize an opportunity. Following this guidance has always helped my career, but it is not necessarily uniform for all industries.
A recent conversation with a resume consulting customer reminded me that many advisors from HR claiming to help individuals obtain jobs may have some stringent resume perspectives with which I do not necessarily agree. While I have a formula to build resumes, which you can follow by purchasing the Design Your Base Resume Workbook, I also use a flexible approach without rules about never or always including certain information. In most cases, what you include in your resume depends on the job to which you are applying and your own values as far as what you seek in an employer.
1. There is no right answer with acronyms.
Historically, avoiding acronyms in a resume was generally advised to facilitate readability for the person receiving the resume. There are still some HR departments that will toss a resume with acronyms, but the decision to use them or not is a lot more complicated than it used to be. In general, there is one longstanding reason to use acronyms and one more modern one.
The enduring reason to potentially use acronyms is if you work in an acronym-heavy field. I work in an acronym-heavy field, and there are acronyms that I know and use daily despite being unsure of the precise words that compose the acronym. One of the main policy acronyms in my field is eight letters long, and trying to remember what word each of those letters represents is impossible.
If your place of work only uses a couple three-letter acronyms, you can probably spell out those abbreviations to help the reader. However, if your field uses a lot of acronyms, it likely makes sense to include them. This shows familiarity within your field of expertise. It also may be the only way to include all the information you want to capture on your resume. Spelling out some acronyms in my field would take an entire line of my resume, and that is not an efficient use of space, so I keep the acronyms. If you work in a field with fewer acronyms, you are less likely to run into this resume real estate problem.
The modern reason to include some acronyms in your resume is applicant tracking software, more commonly called ATS. Looking at your potential employer’s job posting can provide insights into whether the employer likely uses acronyms as ATS keywords that may gatekeep your resume. If the job posting includes acronyms, include them in your resume. If a job posting includes an acronym in one place and spells out that acronym elsewhere, I recommend including both variations in different parts of your resume if possible. Acronyms complicate ATS-proofing your resume, but including each variation should get you through the software.
2. Do not list standardized test scores unless you are still working towards the degree requiring those scores.
This opinion goes against the recommendation from the prestigious think tank that introduced me to the art of resume writing. If you are applying to work at a particular think tank located on Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, DC, you may want to include your SAT scores on your resume. If you are applying anywhere else, you should have more important information to tell a future employer.
I would only list test scores on a resume if you are still working towards the degree to which those scores were applicable. Keep your SAT or ACT scores on your resume until you graduate with your bachelor’s degree. Scrub your GRE scores once you earn your master’s degree. Delete the LSAT score once your J.D. is complete. They are valuable while you are still proving yourself at the entry level of a field but serve no value once you have experience.
If you do not have a job in your field lined up right after graduating, you may want to keep the test score on your resume until you secure that first job in your field. Once you have job experience, delete the test score.
While some uppity employers used to look for test scores on resumes years after the fact, I preferred avoiding becoming an employee at one of those places of employment. With fewer colleges requiring standardized test scores after finally acknowledging the inherent inequity of standardized testing, I imagine fewer employers look for test scores each year. Many innovative and entrepreneurial employers even look for the opposite: Like me, they suspect you may have too little to say about your actual experience and accomplishments if you are still listing your ACT score three years after graduating from college.
3. Do not include a summary statement.
Delete the summary statement on your resume. Afraid of all the valuable information it provides potential employers? It should not provide any information that is not listed elsewhere. Summary statements are repetitive and convey information in an uncreative manner. If your current summary provides any information that is not included elsewhere in your resume, please immediately add that information to the relevant section of your resume.
Reflect on the job application process if you do not believe me. The first step is getting your resume through the applicant tracking software (ATS) by including ATS keywords in your resume. This gets your resume in front of a real person. The next goal is to make that real person want to interview you. They care about your experience and technical skills applicable to the job. If they see you have the combination of pertinent experience and technical skills, and you produced employer-desired results throughout this experience by using those technical skills, you will get an interview.
At that interview, your interviewer will inevitably ask you one of the dreaded broad questions (or demands) including, “Tell me about yourself,” “What interests you about this position,” or “Why do you want to work for XYZ-predictable-questions Company.” Rather than regurgitating the same summary already listed on your resume, you get to provide what will appear to be a thoughtful and original “personal why” statement in-person at your interview. That appearance of originality, while entirely rehearsed since you certainly prepared for your interview, will make you appear more genuine and interesting to the interviewer.
The only potential pushback to this approach is if you believe you need that summary statement to get the interview in the first place. You do not. It just wastes valuable real estate on your resume. If you want to offer a personalized touch explaining your career intentions or passion for this specific job description, there are other ways to do it. Include it in a cover letter. No cover letter? Send a brief note in the email to which you attach your resume. Going through a software system that requires only a resume and nothing more? Ideally, this should indicate to you that the company is truly going off of the resume content, and you should trust them to evaluate your experience and skills. If you are still completely stressed and overcome with the need to include context, include a cover letter as a first page to your resume attachment uploaded in the software system. I personally would not do this. My current employer has a basic application system where applicants just submit a resume, and I love it. But if that cover letter lets you sleep at night, add an intro page to your resume. This can give the reviewers the option of reading the cover letter or skipping to the main content in your resume.
4. Include a brief section about non-work activities that are important to you.
I love an “other activities” section. This is another case where I prefer to eliminate the employer if they do not agree: We are people outside of work, and those experiences make us better at our jobs and the diverse situations we all encounter in life. A potential employer who prefers to have a work-only focused resume will throw out my resume. Good. I will never be staying late at work when I have a rugby obligation to attend, so I am not a good fit for an employer looking for someone who is all work and no play.
While I include non-work activities on my resume, this section is brief. I only list the organizations and my role within them. Non-work activities are not a place for in-depth information or descriptions. That space goes to your work accomplishments. The activities section just shows you are a well-rounded person engaged in your community who assumes leadership positions by choice.
If you are not sold on including non-work activities, they can also be the tie-breaking factor between you and another qualified candidate getting a job. If your potential employer loves you and another applicant but your employer noticed that you ran the local badminton league, they may choose to hire you because of their own history as a college badminton champion. I am not saying you will get a job just because you and a potential employer share an interest, but it can be the tipping point if the employer just needs a bit more encouragement to hire you.
5. Do not list your side hustles on your resume unless they directly pertain to your work.
This may seem controversial since I just supported listing non-work activities on the resume. But these points provide different information. I list my rugby leadership positions to show that I am involved in a non-work community, care about my health and fitness, and spend my free time growing a sport I love. I do not include my Etsy shop on my resume because it is just an income stream. While maintaining an Etsy shop requires organization and communication skills, it is not relevant enough to include on my resume.
Not including a side hustle on your resume also provides a bit of freedom to enjoy the side hustle as a separate space from work, even if you use either space to grow skills for the other. There are times when I have the energy to do something productive but need to separate from work, and having a side hustle that allows me to do that is valuable.
When you have a side hustle that is somewhat related to your job, the decision to include or exclude it from your resume may be more difficult. For example, my work at Phippen Tax & Financial Services is somewhat related. I have an overlap with content management, data visualization, and improving the user experience when navigating websites. If you are in a similar situation, my advice is to include a partially related side hustle if it includes skills that are not included elsewhere in your resume. Particularly if those skills are listed in the job posting, you want them somewhere on your resume. On the other hand, if you can include all primary skills elsewhere, leave your side hustle off the resume. The freedom of saving some time and energy for your own ventures is worth quite a bit.
The perfect resume does not exist.
If my controversial opinions do not make this obvious, there is no such thing as a perfect resume. There are strategies to get your resume into the hands of a real person in the age of ATS. There are ways to organize a resume to make it easier for someone quickly glancing at it to better digest your experiences so they pick you to come in for an interview. But sometimes your resume lands in front of the person who has a bad history with the badminton team or a poor relationship with an executive at the company you worked at right after college. You can do everything right and still miss out on a job for an arbitrary reason.
But you will not miss out on five jobs for arbitrary reasons. If you tailor your resume for the jobs you want and apply intentionally, you will secure a job without sending out hundreds of resumes. My five controversial opinions are not just for getting my resume in front of my ideal employer. They also will get my resume rejected by employers that I do not want, and I am happy with that outcome. Landing a toxic job will just send you back to the job market. Instead, find a good fit by covertly conveying some of your values through your resume.
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