5 resume mistakes to AVOID 📝

Recruiters spend an average of 6 seconds looking at a job applicant’s resume. This means you only have a couple of seconds to make a great first impression and convince the hiring manager why they should consider you for the next step of the interview process. But this also means not giving them reasons to toss your resume out on first glance.

Mistake #1: Not including extracurriculars or “untraditional” experience

Getting an internship or job can feel like a Catch-22: you need experience, but in order to get experience, you need experience. 😵‍💫 That’s where your extracurricular or other involvements come in! So many people leave out experiences because it seems “insignificant” but experience is EXPERIENCE. You should definitely include things like class projects and clubs you're part of and other things such as tutoring and babysitting. These all show leadership, time management, and other skills that companies look for!

Mistake #2: Too much color or graphics

Recruiters only spend an average of six seconds looking over a resume, so the simplest format is best. It’s best to stick with a black-and-white resume format over one with graphics and colors (the main exception is if you’re in a design type role).

Mistake #3: A resume that’s more than 1 page

It’s not necessary to have a resume that’s over a page long (assuming a lot of y’all reading this are probably still in college or early in your career). If you have a lot to say, I would recommend parsing out some of the most important experiences that you'd like to highlight in your resume, and put the rest in a portfolio (and add that as a link in your resume).

Mistake #4: Writing an objective statement

Having an objective statement is NOT necessary since hiring managers know that you are applying to the job. It is better to use the extra space to talk about your experience, which helps you show instead of tell (more convincing to the reader).

Mistake #5: Bullet points with vague responsibilities

I think the “work experience” is the easiest to mess up on because a lot of people will list off their job responsibilities, but companies want to see the DIRECT impact you made on an organization. The easiest way to do this is using the “XYZ formula.” In one sentence, it conveys what you’ve accomplished (X) + the quantitative results (Y) + what you did to achieve the result (Z).

Here’s an example—let’s say you are a barista and your resume bullet is: Served coffee to customers. This does cover the basic task of what you did but doesn’t provide any other details about the impact on customers, the business, etc.

Here’s an updated example of the bullet using the XYZ formula (ChatGPT is your friend here 🤣): Demonstrated exceptional customer service skills as a barista at Starbucks, resulting in a 25% increase in customer satisfaction ratings, as measured by weekly customer surveys.

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TLDR: keep things simple and don’t overcomplicate it (less is more). Hope these tips help with your resume! If you’re recruiting right now, best of luck and you got this!