10 Common Resume Writing Mistakes to Avoid

Let’s be real – putting together a great resume is not exactly a walk in the park. You’re trying to condense your entire professional life into a single page in a way that’s impressive, but not braggy. Informative, but not overwhelming. Memorable, but not over the top.

With so many little details to keep track of, it’s no surprise that many people slip up and make mistakes on their resumes without even realizing it. But even tiny errors can be a huge turnoff to hiring managers sorting through piles of applications.

The last thing you want is for your resume to get immediately tossed in the reject pile because of a silly mistake that makes you look sloppy or unqualified. That’s why it’s absolutely crucial to avoid some of the most common resume writing mistakes.

Top Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Your Resume

Here are 10 of the biggest no-nos that can sink your resume’s chances – make sure to watch out for these big resume mistakes!

1. Spelling and Grammar Gaffes

Let’s start with one of the most obvious (yet still super common) resume mistakes: typos, spelling errors, and terrible grammar. Hate to break it to you, but hiring managers really do judge you for sloppy writing and silly mistakes like that. Even one or two little slip-ups can potentially cost you a job opportunity.

2. Runaway Word Bloat

We get it – you’ve got a lot of great experience to convey. But that doesn’t mean you need to vomit every tedious detail onto the page in dense paragraph form. Resumes need to be tight and skimmable above all else. Too many rambling words and full sentences are a surefire way to lose the hiring manager’s interest.

3. Crazy Formatting Fails

Look, we’re not saying your resume has to be an award-winning graphic design. But there’s no excuse for sloppy formatting that makes your application documents look like a hot mess express. Weird font choices, inconsistent spacing, cramped margins, and illogical section breaks are all great ways to make hiring managers go cross-eyed.

4. Leaving Off Important Dates

Without clear start and end dates next to your work experience and education credentials, it looks like you’re trying to hide gaps in your background. Plus, hiring managers have no way to decipher how long you actually held each position. Always list out years and months to eliminate any guesswork.

5. Bland, Boring Language

Words like “responsible for” or “worked on” might technically be accurate, but they don’t tell the hiring manager anything about what you really achieved. Use punchy action verbs and quantifiable metrics instead to make your bullet points way more compelling. Which sounds better: “responsible for managing a team’s workload” or “motivated and guided a team of 15, improving productivity by 25%”? See the difference?

6. Not Tailoring Your Resume

Having one generic resume that you fire off to every single job application is a rookie mistake. You’re doing yourself a huge disservice by not taking the time to customize your application materials for each specific role you’re targeting. Thoroughly research the job requirements and tailor your resume to highlight your most relevant skills and qualifications for that particular position.

7. Stretching the Truth

We probably don’t need to tell you that outright lying on your resume is a terrible idea that will likely come back to haunt you later. But you might be surprised by how many people try to inflate their experience or stretch the details of what they achieved in past roles. Stick to quantifiable facts about your real accomplishments – no need for embellishments.

8. Irrelevant Oversharing

Your resume is meant to sell your professional skills and experience to get you hired – not tell your personal life story. Too many job seekers clutter their resumes with irrelevant personal details like hobbies, controversial interests, old job references, and other information that hiring managers just don’t need to know. Keep your resume focused solely on your career qualifications.

9. Using a Silly Email Address

Having an email address like gossipgirl99@hotmail.com or dmbmr@yahoo.com on your job application screams unprofessional from the get-go. If you don’t already have one, set up a new email using some variation of your name to give hiring managers a polished first impression. This tiny detail matters more than you think!

10. Not Proofreading Your Resume

This one should be obvious, but clearly, it’s not for many job seekers: always, always, ALWAYS proofread your final resume before sending it out! It’s incredibly easy to overlook silly errors in your own writing. Having a friend or family member look over your resume with fresh eyes can catch typos, formatting mistakes, and other glaring issues you might have missed.

Resume Writing Best Practices

Okay, enough about what not to do. Let’s go over some of the top resume tips to ensure your application materials make an awesome first impression:

1. Start strong with a hard-hitting summary statement at the very top to quickly highlight your key strengths, background, and value proposition.
2. Customize your resume for each specific job by researching the role and company, then tweaking your content to showcase the most relevant details.
3. List your experience and credentials in reverse chronological order, putting your most current and impressive stuff first.
4. Break things up with clear, logical section headings like “Work History,” “Skills,” “Education,” and more.
5. Quantify your achievements and back them up with hard numbers, metrics, statistics, and examples whenever possible.
6. Use strong action verbs like “orchestrated,” “spearheaded,” “enhanced,” and “optimized” rather than vague phrase starters like “was responsible for.”
7. Make your formatting clean and visually appealing, with sensible spacing, sections, indentation, and font choices.
8. Keep it to one single-spaced page if you have under 10 years of experience. Two pages max if you’re an executive or senior-level candidate.
9. Always proofread your materials yourself. Then have at least one other person give it a thorough review to catch any errors you may have missed.

Wrapping It Up

Listen, writing a great resume is hard – and making silly little mistakes is all too easy. But those mistakes can potentially cost you major job opportunities.

The good news is, that avoiding the cringe-worthy pitfalls on this list will put you ahead of the pack when it comes to submitting an impressive, polished, and professional resume. As long as you take the time to customize your application, use compelling language, quantify your achievements, and polish your formatting and writing, you’ll be way ahead of the game.

A strong, mistake-free resume is your ticket to getting your foot in the door for an interview and getting one step closer to landing your dream job. So take the extra time to make sure your application is rock solid, and those hiring managers will have no choice but to take notice of the all-star candidate that is you.

To ensure the your resume is perfectly and professionally written, read more resume writing tips here. Once you’re ready, submit your resume here or browse for open sales jobs to get started with your career. Let Sales Recruiters Chicago be your partner in success!