As the weather turns warmer, many people turn their attention toward spring cleaning. As a professional, one way to use that drive effectively is to focus on your resume.   

In many cases, spring cleaning isn’t just about cleaning; it’s about removing things that no longer serve you well. By giving your resume a good once over and removing details that won’t help you take the next step in your career, you can make sure your resume is ready to impress.  

If you want to spring into career success, here are five things to remove from your resume today.  

1. Unnecessary Dates 

While you usually have to list employment dates on your resume, having any other dates on your application typically isn’t wise. For example, the date you graduated from high school or college makes it easier for a hiring manager to estimate your age.  

While age discrimination is usually illegal, it nonetheless happens. If a hiring manager can guess your age based on your education dates, that may lead them to discard you as a candidate early in the process. By leaving those dates off, that’s less likely to happen.  

2. Your Street Address 

Generally speaking, your street address is unnecessary on a resume. Today’s hiring managers don’t communicate with candidates early in the hiring process by mail. Instead, they use phone calls and emails to get in touch.  

If you’re looking for a local job, listing your city and state is acceptable. However, if you’re trying to land a position in a different city (that isn’t a remote opportunity), you may not want to include any references to your physical address. That way, the hiring manager won’t eliminate you from contention just because you don’t live nearby at the moment.  

3. Outdated or Inappropriate Email Addresses 

Ideally, you want to use an email address that feels reasonably current and is appropriate. If your email address includes an AOL or Hotmail domain, it could indicate to the hiring manager that you’re an older candidate. However, by switching to an option like Gmail, that isn’t the case.  

When it comes to your email address, it’s wise to use parts of your name when creating the account. While certain joke emails may have been funny for a personal account when you were younger, a hiring manager may not find it humorous. Additionally, inappropriate email addresses may lead a hiring manager to assume that you’re young, as you seem unaware of professional standards.  

4. Pronouns 

Usually, while it is fine to use pronouns in a cover letter, they don’t have much of a place on a resume. Instead, resumes tend to feature incomplete sentences that are pronoun-free, allowing you to focus on the core points with greater ease and reduce visual clutter.  

5. A Picture of Yourself 

Unless you are a model or actor, there’s usually no need to have your photo on your resume. In fact, your picture could open you up to discrimination, as it allows the hiring manager to potentially assess your age, race, national background, religion, and more, depending on what’s featured in the photo. As a result, if you have a picture on your resume, it’s best to remove it immediately.  

Contact Us Today!

If you’d like more tips on how you can spring clean your resume, the team at VB can help. Contact us today.