Top Six Blunders Found On Professional Resumes

1. Including information indicating religious or political affiliations. Unless you are applying for a position at a church or with a political campaign, avoid including participation in these types of organizations. Although your involvement shouldn't influence your chances, you would not want to diminish those chances by indicating views that may affect your work.

2. Being overly confident. A hiring manager I know actually said he read a resume that stated, "I'll have your job in five years." There is a big difference between radiating confidence and coming off as threatening or boastful. A better way to have phrased that would be to say, "Enthusiastic in my aspiration to learn and grow within your company."

3. Presenting dull, responsibility-focused bullets. Hiring managers don't just want to know you have the experience and skills to do the job; they want to know you can do it better than everyone else. By telling them simply what you did at your last job, you are communicating that you are mediocre as a job candidate. Did you save your company money? Improve efficiency? These measurable results make your time there more impactful.

4. Including an objective. Resume objectives are focused on what the job candidate wants from their career and employer. In today's job market, companies are just trying to survive and are not concerned with your career needs. You must be focused on the company and what you can do for them. 

5. Including visuals. Unless you are a graphic artist, do not include photos, designs, or other distracting artwork. It just ends up taking away from your fantastic qualifications.

6. Going over two pages. Unless you are a tenured college professor with dozens of books published (in which case you should present a curriculum vitae), there is no need to go over two pages. In fact, it decreases your chances of it getting read. For instance, if you want to learn about a person in a hurry and you have the choice of reading a one-page executive summary or a three-page resume, which would you choose?

It is essential to take some chances in your resume to stand out, but these resume blunders are unforgivable, and are likely to get your resume thrown out. Use this advice and you are on your way to having a strong, professional resume.