Should I include that or not?

Just answering some questions from a client who wanted to know why certain information had been omitted from her resume and after a while my answers got repetitive - really there was just one answer: "I didn't include it because it won't sell."

For example, the two colleges she attended for a year before settling at a third and getting her degree. They're not ivy league schools and there's nothing remarkable about them - they won't sell her and so I left them off the resume to make room for more valuable information.

How about the retail sales job she had right out of college? She's not in retail sales anymore and it's 10 years later. It won't sell so why include it?

She wrote: "Shouldn't company names be bolded?"

My answer: "not necessarily - not if they won't help to sell you." (In this case, the companies were unknown and I wanted the reader to focus on the job titles, so I bolded those instead).

Finally she asked 'shouldn't I include the towns and states of the companies I worked at? By now you probably know my answer. 

If you have questions about what should or should not be on your resume, you can usually make a quick determination by just asking yourself 'does this piece of information make it more likely that I will get interviews?'

In other words: Will it sell?

Cross posted at Career Hub.

Comments

[Gary Capone]

Good advice on what's important. Focusing on the most valuable information is the key. There's a limit to how much you can put on a resume and job seekers need to prioritize the highest impact info. There's a lot of stuff that's nice to have on a resume, but should be discarded in favor of stuff that does a better job of selling the job seeker. The example of the colleges is great. More job seekers should follow this advice.

[Patricia]

I have often been told by resume writers as well as career counsellors to only put the last 10 years of work experience down. However, I work at a university as a clerical staff member and I "test ran" my resume with some colleagues in other university departments (they were all on hiring committees) and they pointed out to me that my resume would likely go into the "no" pile if there was an unexplained gap inbetween when I got my university degree and my work experience. In this case they suggested just summarizing the other positions I held. This meant putting down a junior position that wasn't necessarily relevant, but solved the "gap" problem.

However, I do see what you mean when you talk about not putting something in when it won't sell, but at the same time I want to avoid warning flags in my resume. In the case you mentioned above, I wondered if not mentioning the retail job would create a problem gap? And if so, if there are any creative solutions around it?