How to get a job at Google, Facebook and Uber: HR told what a resume should not be

In his six years in the recruiting industry, Jermaine Murray has been looking for candidates for big companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft. He shared with the publication CNBC your experience of what should and should not be on a resume. Next - from the first person.

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I didn't always know what a resume should look like. In 2013, while struggling to find a job after college, I decided to hire a resume writer. It didn't work out as planned: for $650, I had a six-page resume with less than two years of experience.

The turning point came when I walked into the local sports station with my new resume in hand and the receptionist asked me bluntly, "Would you like to read the six-page resume in addition to everything else you need to do?"

In the evening I went home and redid everything myself. The resume turned out so good that I was invited to interviews, and my friends asked me to write a resume for them. When they all got jobs, my Jupiter HR consulting service was born.

One of the most common questions I get from clients is what I never want to see on a resume.

1. Personal data

It is a waste of valuable paper space and usually contains information that recruiters could find by reading other parts of your resume or your cover letter.

Recruiters and hiring managers usually skim or quickly read a document containing information about your skills, work experience, education, and more. This means that the first half of your resume plays a much bigger role in creating a first impression than the second, and you want the most important and impressive information to be as high as possible.

Instead of including personal details on your resume, use the top space to jump straight to your experience or list of skills and certifications.

2. Relevant keywords

There is a misconception among job seekers that Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) automatically reject resumes without relevant keywords. As a result, some people clumsily stuff their resumes with words from the job description.

On the subject: The programmer created a comic resume full of high-profile titles and keywords: she was answered by well-known companies

But it's not. ATS is used to integrate with other internal company systems, as well as organize applications and reports. Therefore, include keywords from the job description only if they have a true purpose and match your experience.

3. Outdated experience

It's easy to go overboard and put too much detail into every role you've played. But you don't have to include everything. For example, in the tech world, anything you did more than three years ago is considered obsolete.

Focus more on your last one or two major jobs and how the skills you used there will make you perfect for the role. This may mean that more recent jobs on your resume have more list items than older ones, and this is completely normal.

4. Images

You want someone's first impression of you to be about your skills, not about your appearance or personal style.

But even a simple graph or line chart can work against you. You never know how someone will read a graphic representation of your skills. You may give someone the impression that you are more or less competent in certain skills than you really are.

Instead, write down your achievements in the form of a list in the Experience section and demonstrate how you used them.

If you're applying for a creative role, there are other ways to showcase your skills. Ninety-nine percent of resumes are viewed on a computer, so use that to your advantage. Link to your portfolio or blog in the header next to your name and contact information.

5. Secondary roles

While I see this most often with first-time job seekers, even career veterans make the mistake of adding irrelevant positions to their resumes just to prove they worked.

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But your interviewers will look at your experience during background checks. If you have years of experience, there is no need to list every job you have ever done. It only clutters up precious space.

Your resume should show that you are the perfect candidate for the specific job you are applying for. Therefore, include only experience related to this job. The best way to make your resume impressive is to contextualize and back up your accomplishments with numbers and percentages.

The numbers allow you to depict a before and after narrative, clearly demonstrating your positive impact on your work environment. Maybe you increased your sales by 50% or increased your email click-through rate by 500%. Either way, you've made a real, measurable, positive impact.

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