7 Mistakes That Make Your Professional Resume and You Look Old

7 Mistakes That Make Your Professional Resume and You Look Old7 Mistakes That Make Your Professional Resume and You Look OldAre your job applications saying the wrong thing about you?Resumes, like many other marketing materials, have an expiration date. As technology changes and the job-search process becomes more mobile, its important to reevaluate and edit this important document periodically.Your resume is a reflection of you and you dont want recruiters thinking youre outdated because your document is. Heres how to know if your resume needs an update.Its become too longAn eye-tracking study by Ladders found that the average recruiter spends only six seconds reviewing a resume before deciding if its worth a closer inspection. Maximize your exposure by limiting your resume to one page if youre new to the workforce or two pages if youre a seasoned professional. Remember, your resume should always highlight the skills, experience, and accomplishments that are fruchtwein relevant to your job goals.You want employers to call homeIn this mobile age, its more important than ever to be accessible whenever a recruiter wants to contact you. As a result, I recommend that you list your cell phone number, rather than your home phone number, on your resume. notlage only will you be able maintain contact during your (and the recruiters) workday, but youll also have control over the voicemail, who picks up the phone and when.You havent included the URL to your professional profileAccording to a Jobvite survey, 93 percent of recruiters are likely to look at a job candidates social profile. Include the URLs to your online professional profiles so recruiters dont have to guess or mistake you for someone else. Make sure your online profiles and resume tell the same story so you dont send mixed messages to the recruiter.Your resume has an objective instead of a professional summaryObjective statements describe your needs, rather than how youll meet the needs of an employer. Use the space to sell your job candidacy by giving the reader your elevator pitch. In three to five sentences, explain what youre best at, most interested in, and how you can provide value to a prospective employer. In a resume, this is called your professional summary.Your resume is weighed down by too many bullets or dense blocks of text (or both)If you have six seconds to catch a recruiters eye, you need to make them count. Avoid dense blocks of text or long bulleted lists. The key is to format the information in a way that makes it easy to scan quickly to recognize your job goals and relevant qualifications and achievements.Youve included too much of the pastEmployers are especially interested in your most recent experience and how that ties back to their open positions requirements. If youre an entry-level professional, its time to take out any references to your high school career. Instead, focus on highlighting your education, relevant internships and the leadership skills y ouve developed during college. If youre further along in your career, limit your resume to include the most recent 15 years of experience in reverse-chronological order and remove the dates from any degrees, certifications or awards that fall outside that 15-year window.Youre still putting references upon requestEmployers are well aware that youll provide them with references, should they ask for them during the interview process. Theres no reason to waste this valuable space on your resume by stating the obvious. Remember, you only have two pages worth of resume real estate to work with save it for the information that is most compelling.