Top 8 Resume Mistakes to Avoid (in 2024)

Your resume is the most important thing when applying for jobs, as it summarizes your work history, education and skills to show your new employer why you are the best fit for their new position. Throughout the resume writing journey of our Expert Resume Writers and Specialists that optimize resumes for our clients, there is a set of general guidelines we follow, regardless the industry. We have compiled it to a list of 8 items, for you to consider when writing your next resume.

1. Including a resume objective instead of professional summary

We have seen in thousands of resumes, the first thing you see when you open a resume is Objective. In other words, what you are hoping to achieve in your career. Let’s replace this with a Professional Summary. In this summary, you briefly describe your unique skills and qualifications to the employers and how you can benefit them as a new employee. If you are a fresh graduate, or if you are having limited work experience, of course you can write your Objectives. But make sure you explain how those objectives are beneficial for your new employer.

2. Providing few details

For each job / work experience in your resume, include enough details to explain how well you performed in it. Provide 3 – 5 points about your achievements and responsibilities. For your most recent work experience, aim provide about 5 points, highlighting your achievements.

Remember, you need to demonstrate your competencies and professionalism. Always quantify your achievements with numbers.

i.e. Increased [X] by 35% while minimizing [Y] by 20%.

3. Listing work experience that is not relevant

List only the work experience that relates to the new position. Listing unrelated work experience will only cause your relevant work experience to get less highlighted. If you are transitioning into a new industry, highlight your transferrable skills, rather than the responsibilities and experience that is not relevant.

For an example, if you are transitioning from a Marketing Manager role in the retail industry, to a Product Manager role in a tech startup, you can highlight your skills in customer insights, strategic thinking and project management.

4. Using the same resume for all applications

Sending the same resume for all vacancies surely worked a decade ago. But not now. Customize your resume for each job to show employers, why you are the best candidate for the specific job role. You can create a base resume, and customize it to each role you apply. In this customized resumes, make sure to include specific skills and keywords to help your resume to get through Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS).

You can use our ATS Resume Checker to identify specific skills and keywords requires for each job, and Magic Resume Editor to tailor your resume within few minutes with those identified keywords and skills.

5. Too long or too short

Have you heard this ever? “Your resume shouldn’t be longer than one page”. Well this is true in a way. But, assume, there are impressive achievements that you want to highlight and you are not doing it because the resume exceeds “one” page. You should never do that.

As a rule of thumb, try to limit your resume to 2 pages as much as possible. But, if you feel that everything in your resume can be highlighted in a single page, in a clear and impressive manner, go for it. Ask your self when writing, “Will this help me land an interview?”. If the answer is yes, do not hesitate to include that.

6. Visually too busy

If your resume contains tons of graphical elements, 5 different fonts, inconsistent colors, it will most likely give the employer a headache. Make sure you use consistent and simple formatting. Always show it to few people before sending and get their feedback on readability etc.

7. Lack of Specifics

Employers need to know what you have accomplished before. It is simply not stating the obvious to them through the resume. For example

1. Participated in software development projects.
2. Led a team of 5 developers in designing, coding, and deploying a web application that improved customer engagement by 30% within 6 months.

Both of these A & B phrases describes the same person. But the details and specifics in the second phrase will more likely grab the attention of the Hiring Manager.

8. Typos and grammatical errors

Last but not least, the most obvious of all resume tips: your resume has to be grammatically perfect. If it is not, you are not making a great first impression. The employers may draw not-so-flattering conclusions about you like, “This person obviously doesn’t care”.

Finally, once you are done with writing your resume, use our free ATS Resume Checker to check it against the job description you want to apply. You can use the Magic Resume Editor to tailor it to each job vacancy before applying.