1. We Only Have Six Seconds. Make Them Count.
No, that's not an exaggeration. The first glance at your résumé is a rapid-fire scan that lasts about six seconds.
In that time, we're not reading your life story; we're looking for keywords, job titles, and a clean, professional layout.
If your résumé is a dense, three-page wall of text, you’ve already lost us.
What to do:
2. That Tiny Typo is a Giant Red Flag.
You might think a small typo or a grammatical slip-up is no big deal. To a hiring manager, it screams, "I don't pay attention to detail."
When the competition is stiff, we look for easy ways to narrow the pool. A résumé riddled with errors makes it an easy decision to move you to the "no" pile. It suggests that if you're careless with your own career document, you might be careless with your work.
What to do:
3. We Can Tell You Sent This to 50 Other Companies.
A generic, one-size-fits-all résumé is the equivalent of a generic, boring handshake. It shows a lack of genuine interest. When we read a résumé that could have been sent to any company in any industry, we assume you're just firing off applications everywhere, hoping something sticks.
We want to feel like you want to work for us.
What to do:
4. Your 'Responsibilities' Are Boring. Show Us Your Wins.
This is perhaps the biggest mistake job seekers make. Your résumé shouldn't just be a list of tasks you were assigned. We don't want to know what you did; we want to know how well you did it.
A list of responsibilities is passive. A list of achievements is powerful.
What a hiring manager sees:
What to do:
If you're struggling to frame your accomplishments effectively, using a dedicated tool can make a world of difference. A professional resume builder like resumost.com can guide you in crafting compelling, achievement-oriented descriptions that get noticed.
5. Your 'Creative' Formatting is Just Hard to Read.
We appreciate creativity, but a résumé is not the place for it—unless you're a designer, and even then, clarity is key. Complicated layouts, hard-to-read fonts, text boxes, and distracting graphics can confuse both the hiring manager and the Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) that scan your résumé first.
If we have to struggle to find your contact information or work history, we’re moving on.
What to do:
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Fixing these five things will instantly put your résumé in the top tier of applications. It shows you're professional, detail-oriented, and genuinely invested in the opportunity.
Now go give that résumé a final polish and start landing the interviews you deserve.