Common Mistakes in Resume Writing

common mistakes in resume writing

A resume is a sum­ma­ry of your qual­i­fi­ca­tions and expe­ri­ence for a job. On a resume, your aca­d­e­m­ic accom­plish­ments, train­ing, employ­ment, and expe­ri­ence are usu­al­ly high­light­ed. As the IT space becomes increas­ing­ly com­pet­i­tive, it is cru­cial to pay clos­er atten­tion to what com­pa­nies seek. Before sched­ul­ing an inter­view, poten­tial employ­ers use sub­mit­ted resumes to screen can­di­dates. It is, there­fore, nec­es­sary to note com­mon mis­takes in resume writ­ing that have lim­it­ed your chances of get­ting to the inter­view stage.

Your resume should detail your career objec­tive, rel­e­vant work his­to­ry, edu­ca­tion, and any vol­un­teer or appren­tice­ship exper­tise you pos­sess. Also, to stand out among oth­er appli­cants, craft a per­fect and com­pelling resume. What are com­mon mis­takes you should avoid when writ­ing your resume?

Common mistakes in resume writing to avoid 

It is easy to make errors while con­struct­ing a résumé. The con­se­quences are a no reply or an out­right rejec­tion of your appli­ca­tion. Clear­ly, there are many avoid­able mis­takes peo­ple make in resume writ­ing. Here are some preva­lent mis­takes and ways to avoid them:

  • Gram­mat­i­cal and spelling blun­ders: read through your resume to make it flaw­less and devoid of gram­mat­i­cal errors. So, before send­ing, ensure it is spell-checked and scru­ti­nize it for typos and gram­mat­i­cal blunders.
  • Mak­ing the font size too lit­tle or too big: one turn-off for recruiters is wrong­ly sized fonts or incon­sis­tent font sizes. Too large fonts makes the resume a car­i­ca­ture, and using too few fonts to cram in a lot of infor­ma­tion is, undoubt­ed­ly, a bad idea. There­fore, make your resume read­able, and use font sizes of either 11 or 12. Times New Roman or Ari­al font styles are con­sid­ered professional.
  •  Use of unpro­fes­sion­al e‑mail address­es: indeed, many job can­di­dates do not con­sid­er the pro­fes­sion­al­i­ty of their e‑mail address­es and often use fan­ci­ful ones. An exam­ple is techysexybobby@gmail.com. As a mat­ter of fact, it is high­ly imper­a­tive that you use an e‑mail address that com­mu­ni­cates pro­fes­sion­al­ism. Such an ama­teur­ish e‑mail address is unac­cept­able if it con­tains vit­ri­olic or pro­vok­ing language.
common mistakes in resume writing - how not to write resume
  • Poor resume struc­ture: Hap­haz­ard resume high­lights a hap­haz­ard pro­fes­sion­al. IT jobs often require a high lev­el of con­sis­ten­cy and a well-defined struc­ture in oper­a­tions. Recruiters assume that pro­fes­sion­als with poor resume struc­ture would trans­late to low pro­duc­tiv­i­ty as a result of poor orga­ni­za­tion. There­fore, ensure the mar­gins are even­ly spaced, and each head­ing has an equal amount of space between them.
  • Adopt­ing résumé as a one-size-fits-all approach: Recy­cling a resume for jobs in a field is a poor approach as recruiters often spot a gener­ic resume. Avoid send­ing out a ready-made resume to all adver­tised posi­tions with­out edit­ing to suit each of them. Always tai­lor your resume to fit the adver­tised job position.
  • Irrel­e­vant skills/experiences to the adver­tised role: do not bulk your resume with irrel­e­vant infor­ma­tion. This is coun­ter­pro­duc­tive. Sim­i­lar­ly, adding skills or job expe­ri­ences that are unre­lat­ed to the adver­tised role turns off poten­tial employ­ers. Ensure you struc­ture your resume in a com­pelling and straight to the point manner.
  • Out­dat­ed or miss­ing infor­ma­tion: update your con­tact infor­ma­tion as well as your job expe­ri­ences. Revise your resume to update infor­ma­tion regard­ing cer­ti­fi­ca­tions, degrees obtained, and job expe­ri­ences. In par­tic­u­lar, delete old­er resume doc­u­ments on your device and keep only the updat­ed ones. This saves you from send­ing out the wrong resume.  
  • Describ­ing duties instead of accom­plish­ments: your job expe­ri­ences align with the posi­tion applied. Job recruiters are not will­ing to see a rep­e­ti­tion of the described duties in the job adver­tise­ment. Rather, high­light your accom­plish­ment and con­nect your job duties with your work per­for­mance. Also, use num­bers to sell yourself.

Oth­er com­mon résumé mis­takes include:

  • Too long or too short resume
  • Insert­ing a pic­ture of yourself
  • Use of slang mis­used lex­i­con, and repeat­ing cer­tain words as fillers
  • Stat­ing salary requirements
  • High­light­ing a skill set and hobbies/activities that are incom­pat­i­ble with the job
  • Sav­ing the résumé doc­u­ment with the wrong name
  • Uti­liz­ing copied and past­ed posi­tion descriptions,
  • Mak­ing unver­i­fied claims, lying, and
  • Putting incor­rect or unnec­es­sary infor­ma­tion in bold.


Treat your resume as an impor­tant part of your job appli­ca­tion process. These
com­mon mis­takes in resume writ­ing are avoid­able. Check through your resume and find out what has barred you from get­ting inter­view invites. We can help you cre­ate the per­fect résumé you’re look­ing for. We have experts who can tai­lor your IT résumé to the posi­tion you want in this fast-grow­ing IT sector.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

Tip to ace your virtual interview - interview preparation
Interview
Team Elite

Tip to Ace your Virtual Interview

Vir­tu­al inter­views were first con­ceived rough­ly 15 years ago and are cur­rent­ly sweep­ing the human resource sec­tor. A vast major­i­ty of tech com­pa­nies now utilize

Read More »
common mistakes in resume writing
Resume Building
Team Elite

Common Mistakes in Resume Writing

A resume is a sum­ma­ry of your qual­i­fi­ca­tions and expe­ri­ence for a job. On a resume, your aca­d­e­m­ic accom­plish­ments, train­ing, employ­ment, and expe­ri­ence are usually

Read More »