A resume rarely loses you a job on its own, but it can lose you the interview. After reviewing thousands of resumes, the same avoidable mistakes appear again and again. Here are the ten that cost candidates the most — and how to fix each one quickly.
The ten that hurt most
- Listing duties instead of results. Replace 'responsible for' with what changed because you were there.
- No numbers. Add at least one metric to every role you can quantify.
- A vague objective at the top. Swap it for a two-line summary of what you do and the value you bring.
- One generic resume for every job. Tailor the top third to each posting.
- Typos and inconsistent formatting. They read as carelessness; proofread aloud and check date alignment.
- Burying recent, relevant work under old or unrelated roles.
- Walls of text. Use tight bullets of one to two lines, not paragraphs.
- An unprofessional email address or a missing LinkedIn URL.
- Listing every skill you have ever touched instead of the ones the role needs.
- Going over two pages when one would tell a sharper story.
