The most common mistake made by people who attempt to put together their first resume is that they put in too much information. They want to describe everything that they have ever done from the moment of conception to the present. The resume ends up being too long, and nobody will read it.
The most important piece of information that you should retain is that your resume, no matter how well it is put together, will only get a 15 to 30 second review by the person who does the initial screening.
That person is normally someone in Human Resources whose job is to look at hundreds of resumes per day. You must create your resume in such a way that it gives all the information they need in a maximum of 30 seconds.
There is information that, under most circumstances, should not be in a resume. This includes: