Never include in your CV / Resume

 

Never include in your CV / Resume

1. Titles - Never use a heading like Resume or Vitae, or Fact Sheet. Your name should be the first and most prominent item on the page. Employers know its a resume, they've seen one before. Don't be redundant.
2. Lies - A resume exploits your good points and minimizes your bad points. Don't cross the line - What if the thing you lied about is the main reason you were hired!
3. Personal Info - Sex, age, height, weight, marital status, race, hobbies, health, Religion, National Origin. No one should care about these items, but in the UK they do, so just include the relevant.. If you do not you run the risk of looking like you are just filling up space. Leave out the unnecessary.
4. Photos - I like them for creative, on-line resumes, but they are a no-no for a traditional hard copy resume unless you are a model or actor.
5. Salary Request - The time for this is at the first or second interview, not on your resume. You could shoot too low or too high, and a lot of times your pay is based to some extent on how you present yourself at the interview.
6. Fancy Trimmings - Binders, pictures, written testimonials, references, availability, reason for leaving, past salaries, charts, graphs, purple paper. All are bad. This is supposed to be a professional looking document. Remember that its your abilities not the attachments that are supposed to attract attention on your resume.

Words of Wisdom
Normal CV's are generally only one page long. However, for medical positions this ruling is generally relaxed. Try to fill all pages with items that are appropriate for the job at hand, and leave everything else out. Your resume should be as tightly focused as possible. Expand on those things that the employer will find relevant and toss everything else out.