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Common Resume Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

A resume can open doors or close them before you even get to the interview. And yet, many job seekers, especially students and early professionals, make errors that cost them real opportunities.

This guide walks you through the most frequent resume mistakes and shows you how to fix them step-by-step. Whether you're using a resume builder or starting from scratch, avoiding these errors will give you a cleaner, stronger, and more job-ready resume.

Why Resume Mistakes Hurt Your Chances

Hiring managers review dozens or even hundreds of resumes for each job. If yours has avoidable mistakes, they may move on without reading more than a few lines.

What looks like a “small error” to you can signal a lack of attention, effort, or understanding. Common resume issues include:

Formatting that’s hard to read
Empty or vague bullet points
Typos or inconsistent grammar
Overused buzzwords
Irrelevant details that dilute your value

1. Using a Generic Resume for Every Job

What’s wrong?

Sending the same resume to every company may seem efficient, but it hurts your chances. A one-size-fits-all resume fails to speak directly to what the recruiter needs.

What to do instead:

Customize your summary, skills, and experience bullets to match the job description.
Use keywords from the posting (only if accurate).
Prioritize relevant projects or coursework for each industry.
Adjust your file name to match the role: Name_Resume_MarketingIntern.pdf

Small, specific changes make a big difference.

2. Writing a Vague or Wordy Resume Summary

Common mistake:

Motivated and hardworking individual seeking a challenging position to utilize my full potential.

This doesn’t tell the recruiter anything useful.

Fix it:

Your summary should answer: “What value do I bring, and what kind of role am I looking for?”

Better examples:

Final-year B.Com student with hands-on experience in financial analysis and Excel-based reporting. Seeking a data-focused internship in fintech.

Recent design graduate with projects in Figma and Adobe XD. Looking to join a UI/UX team where I can grow fast and contribute from day one.

Limit it to 2–3 lines. Avoid empty adjectives unless followed by proof.

3. Poor Formatting and Layout

Even if your content is great, bad formatting makes it hard to read, and that means fewer callbacks.

What goes wrong:

Fancy fonts or multiple colors
Profile pictures
Narrow margins
Tables that break in ATS
Saving as Word instead of PDF

Best practices:

Use 1–2 fonts consistently (Calibri or Arial)
Black text on white background
Bullet points for achievements
Clean margins (1 inch)
Save as PDF

A clean layout shows professionalism before you even speak a word.

4. Spelling and Grammar Mistakes

If your resume has typos, recruiters may assume you didn’t check it—or won’t check your work in the job either.

Examples:

Manged a team of 4 interns
Concentrated on digital markting
Excelent comunication skills

What to do:

Use Grammarly
Ask a friend to review
Read it out loud
Keep sentences short and clear

5. Listing Responsibilities Instead of Results

Most people just write what they were "supposed to do," not what they achieved.

Weak example:

Responsible for handling customer support and solving queries.

Strong example:

Resolved 90+ customer issues over live chat within SLA, maintaining a 95% satisfaction rate.

Use the STAR format:

Situation
Task
Action
Result

Even as a fresher, quantify your work:

Wrote 10 blog posts with 4,000 views
Grew Instagram followers by 15% in 2 months
Analyzed 100 rows of data in Excel for a finance project

6. Adding Skills You Don’t Actually Know

Many applicants list 15–20 skills, half of which they’ve never used.

What to do:

Only add tools or skills you’ve actually practiced
Explain them in your project descriptions
Mention tools you’re learning rather than pretending fluency

Accurate skills = stronger interviews and better fit.

7. Not Including Projects or Freelance Work

If you’re a student, your projects are your experience.

Mistake:

Leaving the “Experience” section blank.

Fix it:

Include:

Class projects
Hackathons
Side projects
Volunteer assignments

Example:

Personal Finance Tracker – Excel Project

Built a dashboard with SUMIF and pivot tables to track spending. Shared with 25 students.

Show you’re already working on things that matter.

8. Ignoring Soft Skills That Matter

Soft skills often get ignored—or worse, listed without proof.

Mistake:

Good team player, hardworking, self-motivated.

Stronger:

Coordinated with 4 team members on a marketing pitch. Delivered final proposal 2 days early.

Volunteered at a campus event, managing coordination across 3 departments and 40+ attendees.

9. Listing Hobbies That Don’t Add Value

Mistake:

Hobbies: Sleeping, Netflix, long walks on the beach.

Better examples:

Photography – Won campus photo contest; maintain Instagram with 5K+ followers
Blogging – Write weekly tech explainers on Medium
Teaching – Tutor two school students in science weekly

Only list hobbies that show effort or creativity.