17 Résumé Writing Mistakes To Avoid If You Don’t Want To Horrify Recruiters! (2 of 4)

Cramming too much text

While it is not a good idea to use multiple pages in your résumé, it isn’t exactly a good idea to incorporate all that information on one page, either! Like mentioned in our previous point, it is well understood that you may have vast experience and you’d like to share all of that with the recruiter. But, cramming way too much information makes you compromise with the font size and margin – both of which lead to confusion and chaos and ultimately no one is able to decipher what you wanted to say in the first place. Remember, recruiters only have a few seconds to scan through your application. If you contain too much information, they won’t be going through it in any case. So, stick to the point and mention only the information, which you believe is most relevant and important for the job you are applying for.

Founder of Remote Bliss, Rebecca Safier confirms this. She says that going through a résumé, which has lots and lots of information crammed up is simply an eyesore for any HR manager. She advises applicants to instead mention only the most relevant job experiences in order to make it short and succinct. We agree with her when she goes on to say that sometimes more is less and less is more! So, choose your words carefully and create a neat-looking résumé that includes only relevant information.

Using outdated information

If cramming too much experience is bad, then using outdated experience in your résumé is even worse. According to Jordan Wan, who leads CloserIQ, mentioning job experience that dates back to more than five years is totally a waste, as it’s not a useful piece of information a recruiter might or will consider while going through your application. He mentions that some applicants even end up mentioning job experience that dates back a decade! He goes on to say that the best way to avoid such a scenario is to mention only the recent and most relevant job experiences in the résumé, while the skills and other explanations can go in the CV of your application.

Not mentioning the promotions

We usually tend to concentrate more on our job experiences focusing on where and when we worked and for how long, but a crucial piece of information that is missed is the number of promotions we earned at each company. This is an opportunity missed if you have not been mentioning this on your résumés up until now. According to recruiters, by failing to mention the promotions earned, you are missing out on mentioning your accomplishments. From now on, don’t forget to mention the promotions you have earned at a particular job and also indicate the time you spent at each level in the respective company.

Adding vague titles

If you have worked all your life as a freelance content writer, then there is no need to mention your title as some CEO of a company that does not even exist in the first place! This is the most common error people who are new to the job search make. No doubt your experience working as an intern is crucial in landing you a job when you graduate, but that doesn’t mean you should start calling yourself an industry professional as yet, adds Shirley Paolinelli who works at The Motion Agency as the director HR. Instead, she suggests the right words to choose would be something along the lines of “XYZ industry intern looking for a full-time role”, or “aspiring XYZ professional” as more appropriate and realistic.

Using cliché phrases

Never ever fall for those cliché phrases, making yourself believe that this is what a recruiter might want to hear. The reality is, a recruiter looks for exactly the opposite – someone who is not afraid of being original. By using cliché phrases copied from some website, you would yourself be considered a cliché by the recruiter!

CMO of HealthMarkets, Michael Stahl urges applicants not to use cliché phrases such as ‘out of box thinker’ or ‘team player’ as these traits are anyway assumed to be present in a person. You are not supposed to point out that you have them. Instead, you can and should include examples from real-life experiences that prove those traits.

Similarly, words such as ‘multitasking’, ‘seasoned’ and ‘game-changer’ are frowned upon by the recruiters and come across as cliché phrases to them.