You’ve found the perfect job. You’ve got the skills, passion, and motivation. You polish your resume, hit submit, and then silence. No response. No interview.
What happened?
In the highly competitive job market, particularly in the USA, where hiring managers review hundreds of resumes for each position, a single, small error could cost you the job before you can even say, “Hey, I’d like to apply.”
A potential employer frequently forms their opinion of you based on your resume. Your resume offers hiring managers a quick snapshot of your qualifications, experience, and career highlights.
Nonetheless, a lot of job seekers unintentionally commit errors that may result in lost chances. You can significantly increase your chances of getting your ideal job by avoiding these typical mistakes.
11 Resume Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
The following list of 11 typical resume errors includes advice on how to write a strong resume:
- Adding Too Much Personal Information
The Reason It’s an Issue:
Most jobs don’t need details like age, marital status, or religion, but they can cause bias.
How to Correct It:
Examine your resume to check for any personal information that doesn’t relate to your skills.
Don’t include details about your marital status, religion, political beliefs, or personal appearance on your resume unless specifically requested by the employer.
Keep your contact details, employment history, education, and pertinent skills to a minimum. Add extra details only if they are specifically related to the position or sector.
- Making a too-long resume
Why It’s an Issue:
A short resume might not be able to showcase all of the skills and experience, and a long resume might contain some extraneous information.
How to fix it:
An excessively long or short resume can negatively impact your chances. The key to improving your resume is striking the correct balance between being informative and succinct. Finding that delicate balance is crucial.
Based on your experience, limit it to one or two pages. Entry-level candidates can get by with one page, while mid-career professionals can typically get by with two pages.
- Using an Incorrect Email Address
The Reason It’s an Issue:
Employers may view you less seriously if you have an unprofessional email address (carel23@email.com, for example).
How to Correct It:
Always use a business-oriented email address.
It should be perfectly acceptable to use something like [Name][Last Name] @ [Email Provider].com.
To keep credibility, use a variation of your name to create a professional email address (john.muskemail.com, for example).
- Absence of a Clear Summary or Goal
The Reason It’s an Issue:
Recruiters may not immediately understand your strengths and career goals if your summary is inadequate or missing.
How to Correct It:
Give a strong overview of your main skills and career goals at the beginning of your resume. Make it relevant to the position you’re applying for and specific.
- Not Providing Enough Details
However, your resume may also be too brief.
This primarily occurs with college students or recent graduates who have no work experience to include on their resume, resulting in a half-page resume.
The problem is that even student resumes ought to be no more than one page. You should use the experiences you DO have to fill in the blanks in place of work experience. Among these are the following examples:
- Extracurricular pursuits.
- Certifications obtained online.
- Classes taken.
- Experience volunteering.
- University-related projects.
- Individual Projects.
- Using a Generic Resume for Every Job Application
The Reason It’s an Issue:
Sending the same resume to every place is a big problem, as it doesn’t highlight your skills required for the specific jobs because every place has its own requirements and needs.
So for this reason, it may seem that your resume lacks customization and effort, which leads to your resume being overlooked.
How to Correct It:
Make sure that you analyse the description of the job you will be applying for and highlight the skills that the job demands to increase your chances of being hired.
By using keywords from the job posting, your chances of passing through the ATS (Application Tracking System).
- Spelling and Grammar Mistakes
The Reason It’s an Issue:
When applying for a job, it is a must that you appear professional and avoid spelling and grammar mistakes, as you appear unprofessional and unconfident.
Hiring Managers have to go through hundreds of resumes every day, so such simple mistakes result in your resume being terminated.
How to Correct It:
Sites like Grammarly and Microsoft Word’s spell-check feature can help point out your mistakes. And proofread your resume several times. You can also ask your friend or mentor to proofread it for any mistakes that you might have missed.
- Poor Formatting and Layout
The Reason It’s an Issue:
If your resume is not properly formatted, like if it is cluttered and hard to read, then there is a big chance that your resume will be ignored. Since the recruiters must go through several resumes, it can frustrate them if your resume is cluttered.
How to Correct It:
Make a pleasing resume that is easy on the eyes and can highlight your skills that can be easily noted at first read. Keep consistent format style and size (10-12) while also avoiding extreme graphics, keeping minimum yet important information.
- Including Irrelevant Information
The Reason It’s an Issue:
Resumes are always preferred short no matter what anyone says. The recruiter doesn’t need to know how many jobs you’ve done before. They don’t give much time to each resume to know what skills you have.
How to Correct It:
Best to only add the skills required for the job and remove any unwanted info that doesn’t concern them, unless you are adding transferable skills that will prove useful.
- Listing Job Duties Instead of Achievements
The Reason It’s an Issue:
Only stating the duties and responsibilities that one has and should do doesn’t tell if that person can perform well or not.
How to Correct It:
Adding that you handled a situation well, preventing loss, and bringing profit is much more suited. Use terms that tell what you achieved, not what you did.
An example can be given as, instead of just saying “I managed a team”, say “I led a team, which brought about 34% profit to our company”.
- Ignoring ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems)
The Reason It’s an Issue:
Companies first send all the resumes through the ATS, which filters out many resumes. And if your resume isn’t up to par with ATS’s requirements, then it will be rejected even before it can reach the hiring managers.
How to Correct It:
Avoid using smart fonts and go for something simple instead (Arial, Calibri, Times New Roman).
ATS can’t read icons or images, so avoid using those and stick to simple text.
Use keywords that would match the job’s description; e.g., in skills and experience sections, use ‘Project management’, ‘SEO’, and ‘JavaScript’.
Always use .docx or .txt type file (PDF as well if accepted).
Conclusion
Consider your resume to be your own billboard. It’s more than just a list of jobs; it’s your opportunity to differentiate yourself in a competitive job market by sharing your story.
Correct the minor errors. Make your message unique. Show them why your actions are important, in addition to what you have done.
Although your resume is only one aspect of who you are, let’s make sure it makes an impression.
FAQs
What is the ideal length for a resume?
Try to keep it to one or two pages. For beginners or those with less experience, one page is adequate. For professionals in their mid-career who have more to show, two pages is sufficient.
Which font is best for my resume?
Use professional, readable fonts in 10–12 point sizes, such as Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman. Steer clear of fonts that are too informal or ornamental.
