The Top 7 Most Toxic Pieces of Resume Advice

I have been both a hiring manager and psychotherapist in my life for over a decade and no one is talking about the toxicity of bad advice that is given by so-called experts online.

So, I’ve selected what I consider the top 5 most toxic pieces of advice and we’re going to talk about why they’re inaccurate and how to address it accordingly.

1. You Need a Different Resume for Every Job.  No one has time for that.  Seriously.  If you truly take the time to invest in writing a good quality resume, you won’t need to tailor it to every role because they’ll be aligned.  Just make sure you’re leading with your strongest bullet points and most transferrable skills.  If you need to add a core competency or two, that’s fine, but you shouldn’t have to rewrite it entirely.

2. Your Resume Needs to Be One Page.  Absolutely not.  If you’re a high school student with no experience, sure, you can probably fit what you bring to the table on a page, but as a hiring manager, what I WANT to see is more.  Show me your value.  Leverage your experience.  I don’t expect a novel, but I do expect to gain an understanding of who you are, what you do and the value that you bring.  To do that well, you oftentimes must exceed one page and that is more than okay.  Show me the full picture of you, not just snippets.

3. List Your Responsibilities, Not Your Accomplishments.  If I wanted to read a job description, I’d go back and read the one I wrote.  I’m glad you can complete tasks and all, but what I care about as a hiring manager is the impact of what you do.  Save the basic skills for the core competencies section of the resume and focus your bullet points on clear, actionable items that tell me what you did, how you did it and the impact you had on the business.

4. Put Every Job You’ve Ever Had on A Resume.  I don’t care about the job you had slinging ice cream one summer 25 years ago.  I realistically only care what you’ve done the last 10-12 years.  Those are your most relevant skills, the ones that are the most updated and active.  Leverage an early career section to address jobs you’d like to highlight from your earlier years by keeping it focused on the company name, the role(s) you held and the years.  Omit roles that do not have relevance or simply write the line “Additional Experience Available Upon Request”.

5. Formatting Doesn’t Matter.  In the age of ATS systems, it absolutely does.  Collapsible sectioning, columns, pictures, images, sidebars, charts… these all matter and you don’t want them present.  A resume can still look nice with a simple format.  Just make sure you have the content to support it and avoid Canva templates at all cost.

6. Quantify Everything.  Not everything needs numbers.  If you have a few metrics, great, use them.  If not, just show me the impact you made through words.  Hiring managers would rather see impact than have numbers with no support or explanation behind them.

7. Your Resume Should Explain Why You Want the Job.  No, it should tell me why you’re a good fit.  Don’t use “I” statements on a resume, but demonstrate your value and how your skills align.  I know why you’re applying for a job; you need to support yourself and/or your family.  So, skip that part of the conversation and get straight to business.

While there’s plenty more toxic information out there, these are the biggest ones that I see that really hurt candidates on their search.  If there’s something specific you have a question on, email Stephanie@vasthr.com and I will personally answer you back.  As always, you can reach out for free resume reviews and check out my website for some free tools.

Happy Job Hunting and if you need additional help or a FREE resume review, email Stephanie@vasthr.com