Most resumes get rejected in under ten seconds. Not because the candidate is unqualified: because the resume made it easy to say no.
The Ladders eye-tracking study found that recruiters spend an average of 7.4 seconds on an initial resume scan. In that window, a single formatting error, a wall of text, or a vague job description is enough to land your application in the “no” pile. A TopResume study found that 75% of resumes never make it past applicant tracking systems at all.
The good news: almost every common resume mistake has a straightforward fix. Here are twelve of the worst offenders, each with a concrete example of what to do instead.
1. Typos and Grammar Errors
This is the most avoidable mistake on the list, and still one of the most common. A CareerBuilder survey found that 77% of hiring managers immediately disqualify resumes with typos.
One misspelled word tells a recruiter you don’t pay attention to detail. Two tells them you don’t care.
Before: “Managed a team of 5 enginers and oversaw the developement of new features.”
After: “Managed a team of 5 engineers and oversaw the development of new features.”
The fix: Don’t rely on spellcheck alone. Read your resume out loud. Then have someone else read it. Print it out — errors are easier to spot on paper than on screen. Pay special attention to company names, job titles, and technical terms that spellcheck won’t catch.
2. Using a Generic Resume for Every Application
Sending the same resume to fifty different jobs is a volume play that doesn’t work. Recruiters can tell when a resume wasn’t written for their role. The job description says “project management” and your resume talks about “team coordination”: that’s a miss, both for the human reader and for the ATS.
Before: A single resume with a summary that reads “Experienced professional seeking a challenging role in a dynamic organization.”
After: A tailored summary that reads “Operations manager with 6 years of experience in supply chain optimization and vendor negotiations, looking to bring process improvement expertise to [Company Name]‘s logistics team.”
The fix: Keep a master resume with everything you’ve ever done. For each application, pull the relevant experience and mirror the language from the job posting. If the posting says “stakeholder management,” use that phrase — not “client relations” or “working with people.” This also helps your resume pass ATS keyword filters. More on that in our guide to ATS-friendly resume formats.
3. Writing Job Descriptions Instead of Achievements
This is the single biggest content mistake on most resumes. Listing what your job was supposed to involve tells a recruiter nothing about how well you did it. They already know what a “Marketing Coordinator” does. What they want to know is what you accomplished.
Before: “Responsible for managing social media accounts and creating content.”
After: “Grew Instagram following from 2,400 to 18,000 in 8 months through a content calendar strategy that increased engagement rate by 34%.”
The fix: For every bullet point, ask yourself: “So what?” If the bullet just describes a task, rewrite it to show the result. Use the formula: Action verb + what you did + measurable result. Not every bullet needs a number, but aim for at least half of them to include quantified impact.
4. Including an Objective Statement
Objective statements were standard in the 1990s. They are dead weight now. “Seeking a challenging position where I can utilize my skills” tells a hiring manager absolutely nothing: and it wastes the most valuable real estate on your resume.
Before: “Objective: To obtain a position in marketing where I can apply my communication skills and grow professionally.”
After: “Marketing specialist with 4 years of B2B SaaS experience. Led product launch campaigns that generated $1.2M in pipeline revenue. Skilled in HubSpot, Google Analytics, and paid social.”
The fix: Replace the objective with a professional summary — three to four lines that highlight your experience level, your strongest skills, and your most notable achievement. Think of it as your elevator pitch in text form.
5. Poor Formatting and Visual Clutter
When a recruiter glances at your resume and sees a wall of text with inconsistent fonts, random bolding, and no clear hierarchy, they move on. The Ladders eye-tracking study showed that resumes with a clear visual hierarchy and defined sections received significantly more attention in key areas.
Before: A resume with three different fonts, paragraphs instead of bullet points, no clear section headers and text crammed edge to edge with half-inch margins.
After: A clean layout with one font (two at most), consistent section headers, bullet points for experience and standard one-inch margins.
The fix: Use a single professional font like Calibri, Arial, or Garamond. Keep font size between 10 and 12 points. Use bold for section headers and job titles only. White space is your friend — it makes the resume easier to scan. Stick to bullet points (3-5 per role) instead of paragraphs.
6. Making It Too Long (Or Too Short)
A two-page resume for someone with two years of experience is padding. A one-page resume for someone with fifteen years of experience is leaving out important information.
The general rule: one page if you have less than ten years of experience. Two pages if you have more. Three pages is almost never appropriate unless you’re in academia or a senior executive.
Before: A three-page resume for a mid-level marketing manager that includes every college course, a “References available upon request” section and detailed descriptions of internships from 2009.
After: A focused one-page resume that covers the last 10 years of relevant experience with concise, achievement-oriented bullet points.
The fix: Cut anything older than 10-15 years unless it’s directly relevant. Remove “References available upon request” — recruiters already know that. Drop your college GPA if you graduated more than three years ago. If you’re still over two pages after cutting, your bullet points are probably too long.
7. Burying Your Skills
Many resumes list skills at the very bottom, after two pages of experience. By the time a recruiter gets there: if they get there: they’ve already made their decision.
Worse, some candidates skip the skills section entirely and expect recruiters to infer technical abilities from their job descriptions. That’s asking recruiters to do extra work. They won’t.
Before: A skills section at the bottom of page two that lists “Microsoft Office, communication, teamwork, problem-solving.”
After: A skills section near the top of page one, organized by category: “Languages: Python, SQL, JavaScript | Tools: Tableau, AWS, Docker | Certifications: AWS Solutions Architect, PMP.”
The fix: Place your skills section prominently — either right below your summary or in a sidebar. Separate hard skills from soft skills. Prioritize technical skills and tools that match the job description. Generic soft skills like “teamwork” add very little value without context.
8. Using Passive Language
Passive voice makes you sound like things happened around you rather than because of you. It strips agency from your accomplishments and makes bullet points longer than they need to be.
Before: “Was responsible for the implementation of a new CRM system that was adopted by the sales team.”
After: “Implemented Salesforce CRM for a 40-person sales team, reducing lead response time from 48 hours to 6 hours.”
The fix: Start every bullet point with a strong action verb. “Led,” “built,” “designed,” “reduced,” “increased” — these words put you in the driver’s seat. Avoid “was responsible for,” “helped with,” “assisted in,” and “participated in.” If you helped, specify how. If you participated, describe what you contributed.
9. Including Irrelevant Personal Information
Your resume doesn’t need your photo (in the US and most of the Anglosphere), your age, your marital status, your hobbies, or your high school. These take up space and can introduce unconscious bias.
Before: Including a headshot, listing “Hobbies: reading, hiking, cooking,” and noting “Marital Status: Single.”
After: Removing all personal information except your name, phone number, email, LinkedIn URL and city/state.
The fix: Strip out anything that isn’t directly relevant to your ability to do the job. The one exception: hobbies or interests that directly relate to the role or demonstrate relevant skills (e.g., listing open-source contributions for a software engineering role). Everything else is noise.
10. Using an Unprofessional Email Address
This sounds minor. It’s not. An email like “partyguy99@hotmail.com” or “cutiepie_sarah@yahoo.com” signals a lack of professionalism before the recruiter reads a single word of your resume.
Before: “sk8erboi2003@aol.com”
After: “sarah.kim@gmail.com”
The fix: Create a professional email address using some combination of your first and last name. Gmail is fine. Your own domain is even better, but not necessary. The point is to remove any reason for a recruiter to question your professionalism.
11. Not Tailoring for ATS
Applicant tracking systems are the gatekeepers for most corporate job applications. If your resume doesn’t pass the ATS, a human never sees it. Common ATS-related mistakes include using images or graphics for key information, submitting in the wrong file format and using creative section headers the system can’t parse.
Before: A beautifully designed resume with skills displayed in a graphical bar chart, section headers like “Where I’ve Made an Impact” instead of “Experience,” and submitted as a PNG file.
After: A clean, text-based resume with standard section headers (Experience, Education, Skills), submitted as a .docx or PDF, with keywords from the job description woven naturally into bullet points.
The fix: Use standard section names. Submit in .docx or .pdf format (check the job posting for preferences). Don’t put important information inside images, headers, footers, or text boxes. For a deeper breakdown, read our full guide on ATS-friendly resume formats.
12. Listing Every Job You’ve Ever Had
Your resume is not your autobiography. Including your summer job scooping ice cream when you’re applying for a senior engineering role doesn’t add value. It dilutes the impact of your relevant experience and makes your resume longer than it needs to be.
Before: A resume that lists a babysitting job from 2007, a two-week temp assignment from 2010 and every short-term contract since then — alongside the applicant’s actual career in data science.
After: A resume that covers three to four relevant roles from the last decade, each with strong, achievement-focused bullet points.
The fix: Include only positions that are relevant to the job you’re applying for, or that demonstrate transferable skills. For older or less relevant roles, you can list them in a brief “Additional Experience” section with just the job title, company and dates — no bullet points needed.
The Pattern Behind All 12 Mistakes
Every mistake on this list comes down to one of three problems: you made the recruiter work too hard, you gave them a reason to say no, or you didn’t show them what they were looking for.
Fixing these doesn’t require a complete resume overhaul. Start with the biggest offenders: vague bullet points, poor formatting and not tailoring for each application. Those three changes alone will put your resume ahead of most applicants.
If you want to build a clean, ATS-ready resume without worrying about formatting from scratch, 1Template offers resume templates designed to pass ATS scans while keeping a professional look. It takes the formatting question off the table so you can focus on content.
Pick one mistake from this list. Fix it today. Then move to the next one. Your resume doesn’t need to be perfect: it needs to stop giving recruiters reasons to reject you.
