As a hiring manager who has examined over 1500 resumes, these are the top three errors made by job seekers.
By Career counseling

Over the years, as a hiring manager who has examined over 1,000 resumes, I have observed a trend: the majority of job seekers unintentionally hurt their chances before they even get an interview. Although credentials and abilities are important, how they are portrayed on a resume frequently determines whether a candidate is shortlisted or passed over. I’ll go over the top three most frequent—and expensive—resume errors that I frequently see in this post.

Nobody enjoys updating their resume at all. Regretfully, recruiters and hiring managers still primarily utilize it to sort through job applications. Additionally, your resume needs to put in extra effort to help you get noticed in the modern job market, where a single posting may receive hundreds of applications in a single day.

Throughout my career, I have hired dozens of people as a manager at leading media companies, a startup founder, and a vice president at two tech startups. In the past ten years alone, I have evaluated over 1,000 resumes, and a lot of people are unaware that their resume is actually making it harder for them to get a job.

I frequently witness the following major errors made by job seekers:

Listing responsibilities and stopping there

Many people just list their daily responsibilities in each role on their resume. However, it is likely that you will be competing with hundreds of other individuals whose previous job titles and responsibilities are very similar to yours when you apply for a job. You won’t stand out from the crowd if you name the same tasks that they have on their resumes.

Make it right: Emphasize your achievements and influence.
Talk about the influence you had on your team or the company using your bullet points. Did you see a significant increase in traffic to your vertical? Establish a sales goal for each quarter? Simplify a crucial procedure?

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Try one of these strategies if you’re unsure how to discuss your impact or if you don’t believe your work is quantifiable:

  • Consider the metrics used to evaluate your performance in that position. How did your manager and you know you were performing well? What topics were covered in your yearly review? Perhaps it’s the quantity of deliverables, the punctual delivery, or the caliber of the work as assessed by X outcome. To guarantee on-time delivery to clients, the project manager oversaw up to ten cross-functional initiatives each month.
  • Name a bigger business metric that you helped create. Even though you might not have revenue statistics for every story you’ve written as an affiliate e-commerce writer, you’re probably aware of the significant business victories your work has helped. For instance: “Contributed to the highest-ever sitewide Black Friday/Cyber Monday revenue by writing 45 Black Friday shopping posts.”
  • Use words rather than numbers to describe the impact. This is particularly helpful when discussing concepts like soft skills that are hard to measure. It also helps add some variety because it’s difficult to read and scan a resume that is just a wall of numbers. I have, for instance, the following statement on my own resume: “Known as a key culture carrier and influential leader throughout the organization, with team engagement scores among the highest in the company.”

2. Not tailoring your resume

A few years ago, I was looking to hire an editor to lead a team producing content that was optimized for search engines, called a Director of SEO Content. We were seeking “significant experience using SEO to drive content strategy and creation,” according to the first bullet point in the job requirements. However, a startlingly high percentage of resumes I received contained neither the terms “SEO” nor “search” at all. I couldn’t waste my time interviewing those people, no matter how wonderful they might have been.

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Keep in mind that a recruiter or HR representative who isn’t directly familiar with your job function will frequently be the first person to view your resume. They won’t make the connections or assume you have experience beyond what is listed on your resume.

Make it right: Ensure that your bullet points align with the job description.
Don’t leave people wondering about your credentials! Make sure your resume includes a mention of each of the most significant duties and requirements listed in the job description. With ChatGPT or any of the numerous AI resume tools currently on the market, this is now simpler than ever.

Having a separate base version of your resume for each of the two or three different job types you’re applying for will save you a ton of time. In this manner, you can avoid customizing it for each unique application.

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3. Overstuffing your resume

While I don’t strictly enforce the one-page rule, I do advise staying within one page if you have less than five years of work experience! However, I once came across a resume that covered the last four years of employment in four full pages.

A resume should be a summary of your career, with a focus on the last five to ten years, rather than a detailed list of all the things you have ever done at work, unless you are writing an academic CV.

Make it right: Focus on what really matters.
When showcasing your greatest achievements in each position, be brutal and focus on the experience that is most pertinent to the position you are applying for. Additionally, don’t exceed two pages. Your early career roles should start to disappear from your resume once you have accumulated 10 to 15 years of experience.

Jeannie Kim was Policygenius’s previous vice president of content. A seasoned journalist and digital executive, she has held executive roles in tech and media companies, such as Time Inc.’s Executive Editor, Health, co-founder and Chief Content Officer at Samada, and Vice President of Content at The Muse. She frequently gives talks about career success, content strategy, and life after media work.