Resume guide
Common resume mistakes (and how to fix them)
The resume mistakes that quietly cost interviews: duty statements, forced metrics, interchangeable summaries, formatting the parser can't read, and padding. With the fix for each.
Nobody writes back to tell you why. Usually it wasn't one glaring flaw either, it was four or five small things stacking up until the whole page read as unremarkable. Here are the ones that cost the most interviews, roughly in order of how much damage they do.
Listing duties instead of achievements
The most common version reads like the job description you were hired against: a tidy list of what you were responsible for. Responsibilities say nothing about how well you did any of it. Rewrite each line so it lands on a result, led by a plain verb and backed by a number where you've got one.
Forcing numbers where there aren't any
This is the counterweight to the advice above, and something careers advice rarely admits: not every job produces metrics. Care work, teaching, research, and plenty of support and creative roles have real impact that no percentage captures, and a bullet with a number bolted on for appearance's sake reads worse than an honest one without. When the figure genuinely isn't there, reach for scale, scope, or outcome instead: how many people, how complex, what was different afterward.
A summary that could belong to anyone
Sending the same untailored resume everywhere shows up first in the summary. Interchangeable phrasing quietly signals you didn't tailor anything else either. Point it at the specific role, and make sure the terms the posting leans on appear where they're true of you.
Formatting the parser can't read
Text inside images, invented section names, and layouts that jump around can all confuse the software reading you first. The answer isn't giving up on design. Use a template that exports as real selectable text with standard headings, so you get the look and the parseability in the same file.
Typos and drifting formats
Spelling errors, tenses that switch halfway down, and three different date formats read as carelessness, fairly or not. Read it out loud, pick one date format and hold it, and get someone else to look. It's the cheapest improvement available to you.
Padding it out
A resume stretched to two or three pages with old or unrelated roles buries the good material. For most people one focused page is stronger. Older jobs can drop to a single line, or come off entirely.
Trying to hide a gap
Stretching dates to paper over a gap tends to backfire, because dates get checked. A gap you name plainly (study, caring, redundancy, illness, a sabbatical) is far less interesting to a recruiter than one you visibly tried to obscure. Most of them have had one too.
Quick steps
- 1Audit for duty statements
Go through every bullet and flag the ones describing a responsibility rather than a result. Rewrite those first.
- 2Add numbers where they're real
Attach a metric to your strongest bullets. Where there genuinely isn't one, use scale or outcome instead of forcing a percentage.
- 3Re-aim the summary
Replace interchangeable phrasing with a summary written for the specific role, using the posting's real language.
- 4Clean up format and typos
Standard headings, real text, one date format, read aloud. Then export a clean PDF.
Frequently asked questions
- What's the biggest resume mistake?
- Listing duties instead of achievements. It's the default mode almost everyone falls into, and it leaves the reader with no idea whether you were actually any good at the job.
- How many bullet points per job?
- Three to five for recent, relevant roles, and one or two for older ones. A short list of sharp lines reads better than a long list of duties, and nobody has ever complained that a resume was too easy to read.
- Is it bad to use a resume template?
- No, and the people who say otherwise are usually selling something. What matters is that it exports as real selectable text with standard headings. The template isn't the problem, text trapped inside an image is.
- Should I include every job I've had?
- No. Include what supports your case for this role. Older or unrelated jobs can be compressed to a line or dropped, especially once they're pushing you past one focused page.
- Do I need to explain an employment gap?
- A short, plain mention is enough, and it's better than fudged dates. You don't owe anyone detail about health or family circumstances. A single clause naming it closes the question and moves the reader on.