What Not to Include in Your Resume: 10 Rules From Our Team

Most resume advice tells you what to add. This article tells you what to remove and in many cases, removing the wrong things costs you more interviews than any formatting fix ever will.

Our team has reviewed thousands of resumes across industries in Canada and the US. The same mistakes appear repeatedly, from recent grads to 20-year professionals. Here are the 10 things that consistently damage a resume’s chances, and why each one matters.

 

1. Personal Information That Has Nothing to Do with the Job

Do not include your gender, date of birth, nationality, marital status, number of children, religion, or political affiliation. None of it is relevant to your qualifications and including it can actually work against you.

Employers are not supposed to factor any of these into hiring decisions. When you include this information, you put them in an uncomfortable position, and some will simply move on to avoid the risk. Keep your header clean: name, phone, email, city (not full address), and a LinkedIn URL if your profile is polished.

 

2. A Photo

Unless you are applying for an acting or modelling role, leave the photo out. A photo introduces appearance into a process that should be based on skills and experience. Many ATS platforms also struggle to process images, meaning your resume may be parsed incorrectly before a human ever reads it.

This is different from LinkedIn, where a professional headshot is expected. On a resume, it creates unnecessary risk. For a deeper look at keeping your professional profile consistent, see our guide on how to make the most of your LinkedIn profile.

 

3. Salary History or Expectations

Never include what you were paid in previous roles, and do not state a target salary in the resume itself. Salary history can be used to anchor negotiations below your market value. Salary expectations listed too early remove your leverage before a conversation has even started.

This discussion belongs in the offer stage, not the screening stage.

 

4. Outdated Work History (Especially Beyond 10-15 Years)

Listing every job you have held since the early 2000s does not demonstrate depth it creates clutter. For most professionals, the last 10-15 years are sufficient. Anything older should only appear if it is directly and uniquely relevant to the role.

Senior professionals often struggle with this. If you have extensive experience, be selective. A professional resume review can help you identify which roles strengthen your case and which ones dilute it.

 

5. An Objective Statement

Objective statements (“Seeking a challenging position where I can apply my skills…”) have been obsolete for years. They describe what you want from an employer rather than what you bring to them.

Replace it with a 3–4-line professional summary that positions your value clearly and includes keywords from the job posting. This is also the section ATS systems scan first. A weak or missing summary is one of the fastest ways to be filtered out before your resume reaches a hiring manager. If you want to understand what hiring managers need to see in your resume, the summary is the place to start.

 

6. “References Available Upon Request”

This line wastes space and states something that is already assumed. No hiring manager expects a resume to include references directly. Remove it. Use that line for something that actually adds value.

 

7. Graphics, Tables, Text Boxes, and Fancy Formatting

This one surprises people. A visually elaborate resume might look impressive to a human but ATS software often cannot parse columns, text boxes, or tables correctly. Key information like job titles and dates can end up scrambled or lost entirely.

Stick to clean, single-column formatting with standard section headings. ATS compatibility is non-negotiable if you are applying through online portals, which describes most applications today. Our team always writes ATS-optimized resumes that pass software screening before reaching a real person.

 

8. Reasons You Left Previous Jobs

Your resume is not the place to explain departures, whether the reason was positive (better opportunity) or complicated (restructuring, conflict, burnout). Hiring managers do not need this context at the resume stage, and including it raises questions that do not need to exist yet.

If asked during an interview, have a brief and neutral answer prepared. Until then, keep it off the page.

 

9. Irrelevant Hobbies or Personal Interests

A well-placed interest can occasionally humanize a resume in the right context but most of the time, listing hobbies takes up space that could go toward accomplishments. “Enjoy hiking and reading” tells an employer nothing useful.

If you include interests, they should be specific and contextually relevant (community involvement, industry associations, volunteer work in a related field). Otherwise, cut the section entirely.

 

10. Vague, Hard-to-Read Language

This is not about what you include it is about how you write it. Long paragraphs, passive voice, and overused phrases like “responsible for” or “assisted with” make it impossible for a recruiter who may spend only seconds on an initial pass to identify your value.

Every bullet point should start with an action verb and ideally include a measurable outcome. “Managed a team” is weak. “Led a team of 8 and reduced onboarding time by 30%” is what gets attention. Clarity is not a style choice it is a competitive requirement.

If you are struggling to articulate your own experience concisely, that is exactly what professional resume writing services are designed to help with. Our team works with professionals across Canada to turn dense work histories into clear, interview-generating documents.

 

What to Do Next

If your resume contains any of these, fixing them is straightforward. If you want a second set of eyes before you apply, our team offers resume review services that assess your document against real hiring standards — not generic checklists.

Ready to move forward? View our resume services or reach out directly. No pressure to commit, just an honest assessment of where your resume stands.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I include a photo on my Canadian resume? No. Photos are not standard on Canadian or US resumes and can introduce unintentional bias into the screening process. Leave it off unless the role explicitly requires it.

Is it okay to include religious volunteer work on a resume? Only if it is directly relevant to the role you are applying for. Otherwise, it introduces personal information that is not necessary for hiring decisions.

How far back should my work history go? For most professionals, 10-15 years is sufficient. Roles older than that should only appear if they are uniquely relevant to the specific position.

Does ATS reject resumes with photos or graphics? Many do. ATS systems parse resumes as text. Photos, text boxes, columns, and tables can cause parsing errors that corrupt your job titles, dates, or skills sections before a human reviewer ever sees your file.

What should replace an objective statement? A 3–4-line professional summary that highlights your most relevant experience, a key achievement, and the type of role you are targeting. Use language from the job posting to improve keyword alignment.