Common resume mistakes that cost you interviews

Most resumes get only a short first look before someone decides whether to read on. The mistakes that end that look early are usually small: a vague summary, duties instead of results, a layout that's hard to scan, or a typo in the first lines. Each one is quick to fix.

Here are the ones we see most often.

1. A summary that could be anyone's

"Hard-working, motivated professional seeking new challenges" tells the reader nothing. Replace it with two lines about what you do and what you're good at: "Warehouse supervisor with eight years in food distribution. Cut picking errors by a third at my last site."

2. Listing duties instead of results

"Responsible for social media" describes the job, not what you did with it. Compare: "Grew the company's Instagram from 2,000 to 15,000 followers in a year." Ask yourself, for each line: what changed because I was there?

3. One resume for every job

Sending the same resume everywhere is easy, but it shows. The most relevant parts of your experience end up buried. Our guide on tailoring a resume to a job posting shows how to fix this in about twenty minutes per application.

4. Too long, or too short

For most people, one or two pages is right. If yours is three or more, cut old jobs down to a single line each and remove anything that doesn't help with the job you want. If it's half a page, you're probably leaving out things you did that count, like volunteering, projects or responsibilities you took on without the title.

5. Hard to scan

Long paragraphs, tiny fonts and creative layouts that hide the dates all slow the reader down. Use clear headings, short bullet points and plenty of white space. Put dates in the same place for every job.

6. Typos and wrong details

A spelling mistake in the first lines, an old phone number or an email address that bounces can end your chances before anyone reads your experience. Read your resume out loud once, slowly. Ask someone else to read it too.

7. An unprofessional email address

If your email is something you made up at fifteen, set up a simple one with your name for job hunting. It takes two minutes and it's free.

8. Gaps you don't explain

A gap of a few months doesn't need explaining. A gap of a year or more might raise questions. A short honest line helps: "2023: career break to care for a family member" or "2022: travelled and completed a web design course."

9. Everything in the same weight

If every line is bold, nothing stands out. Use bold only for job titles or company names, and let your best results speak through their numbers.

10. Saving it as the wrong file

Unless the posting asks for Word, send a PDF. It looks the same on every screen. Name the file with your name, like "Ana Petrauskaite Resume.pdf", not "CV final final 2.pdf".

A quick check before you send

Before each application, ask: if this was the only thing they knew about me, would they want to talk to me? If the answer is "maybe", look again at your summary and the first two bullet points under your latest job. That's where most of the first look goes.

If you want a fresh layout without starting from zero, Vibitely's resume builder takes the CV you already have and gives it a cleaner design. Building and downloading the PDF is free.