The Watercooler

5 Resume Mistakes to Avoid

Want your resume to:

  • Be understood by employers’ hiring technology?
  • Attract a recruiter’s attention?
  • Distinguish yourself as the ideal candidate?
  • Help you land an interview?

A well-crafted resume can do all of these, but only if it’s up to 2021 standards. If you’re looking for a job, start by looking over your resume – and making sure you’re not sabotaging your success by committing one of these fundamental errors.

Biggest Resume Mistakes

1. Lack of attention to detail.

Typos and grammatical errors are like a digital billboard that reads, “DON’T HIRE ME – BECAUSE I DON’T CARE ABOUT THE QUALITY OF MY WORK.” Use your word processing software, a tool like Grammarly, and trusted friends or family members to proof your resume carefully.

2. Unprofessional contact information.

That email address that sounded cool when you were in high school probably isn’t as cool to a hiring manager. Make sure your email address (and your social account names) reflects who you are as a job candidate – and don’t knock you out of contention.

3. Outdated or irrelevant information.

Including demographic information (e.g., marital status, age, ethnicity, gender) or details about your hobbies or interests signals to a recruiter that you’re out of step with today’s resume-writing best practices. Your resume’s goal is to land you an interview; any information that’s not essential to that goal is unnecessary.

4. Lack of customization.

Applying for an administrative job? Your resume shouldn’t read like you want a customer service job. While you don’t need to rewrite your resume for each job you pursue completely, you do need to modify it for the job posting. Before you hit “submit,” take the time to tweak content so that it incorporates keywords from the listing.

5. Over-the-top design.

Resume templates come in a million shapes and sizes – but simpler is always better when it comes to formatting. Too many colors, lines, icons, or borders:

  • distract (or even turn off) human readers.
  • Make your resume hard for parsing software to understand.
  • Detract from the substance of your content.
  • Make it look like you’re trying too hard.

Unless you’re an artist or in graphic design, choose an understated template (think: clean lines, black and white text, no more than two classic fonts). Let your skills and experience do the “selling” for you.

Learn 5 more resume mistakes here: You’re Spooking Hiring Managers with These 5 Resume Mistakes

A successful job search starts with a great resume, but that’s just the first step.

PrideStaff can help you at every stage of the process:

  • Getting your resume to the right decision-makers.
  • Prepping you to interview well.
  • Ultimately finding your ideal opportunity.

Get Started with PrideStaff

Ready to get started? Contact your local PrideStaff office today to learn more, or search for jobs here.