Every bit of information on your resume is important. If that piece of information, that bullet, that phrase, is not relevant to the position or industry, it needs to go. It needs to go to make room for relevant information.
Contact Info
Your name and contact information is at the top of the page and it is The Most Important information on the resume. Because without that information, no hiring manager will contact you. Hiring managers are not in the business of investigating and digging up information – they aren’t Sherlock Holmes with wonderful deductive skills!
The Sections
So, once you have ensured that your name is spelled correctly (don’t laugh, I have seen people misspell their own names on their resume!) and your contact information is correct, then look at each section.
You are the job seeker; you are the person in charge of your career and your future. As the person in charge, you must make decisions about how you present your information and in what order that information is organized on the resume.
What is the next most important section on the resume? Does that section follow your name and contact information? For a new graduate, the next most important section is probably their education. But many job seekers put education at the bottom of the resume. And that may be the right place for the education section for experienced professionals.
Career Changers
For career changers, it might be necessary to have a Relevant Experience section that actually goes back more than 10 years into the past to show previous experience and skills. For senior-level professionals, a two-page resume may be necessary to highlight everything they bring to a position. And a summary section can position anyone – new graduate, career changer, or senior-level professional – for the specific position.
No Objective Statements
While I no longer recommend objective statements on a resume, I do endorse summary statements and their ability to concisely tell the hiring manager what the job applicant brings to the position.
No matter how you order the sections, make sure that every piece of information, every phrase, every word, is relevant to your goal and advances your efforts to begin or enhance your career. There is no unimportant information on a resume, but some of the information is definitely more important than other information!