Ever wondered Hiring managers receive dozens and dozens of job applications for a certain job position. They don't go thoroughly through each and every resume; instead they spend about a minute or two on each one. There are a few common errors which render your resume unfit for further considerations. Want to know why your resume always goes straight into oblivion? Here is a list of things that makes your resume look bad.  


1. An objective

You are applying for the job, so that clearly means you want the job. Putting in crazy objectives, or any kind of objective at all, makes your resume unattractive. So you should skip this part.

2. Irrelevant Past Job Experiences

Do not mention previous experiences that are not related to your job. Even if you were crowned with the title of the 'King or Queen of lemonades' while working at a restaurant in your high school. Unless of course, you want to make and sell lemonades for the rest of your career. However, including job experiences which show useful skills (like management or computer skills) is a good idea.

Suppose you have had two employers in the past. But only one of them is relevant to the current job you are applying to. Rather than leaving in empty gap years, mention the other job but in such a way that it highlights accomplishments that might show your skills relevant to the current job.

Alyssa Gelbard, who works as a career expert and is the founder of career-consulting firm called Résumé Strategists, explains that past work experience that apparently is not strictly relevant to the job at hand might help to show another dimension of your personality, you abilities and diverse skills.

3. Your Age

Hiring managers are interested in what you can do for them, not how many years you've blessed the planet with your presence. So, there is no need to include your age in your resume.

Managing editor of ResumeEdge.com and JobInterviewEdge.com Darlene Zambruski, advises job aspirants;

  •  Not to list professional experiences that date back to more than 15 years.
  • Do not provide the exact number of years of your previous experience in the opening paragraphs or opening summary of your resume.

Providing the exact number of years might invite age discrimination. Being young and inexperienced or being old and too much experienced, both can go against your favors. So avoid putting that in your resume.

4. Lists of Fruitless Tasks or Duties

Many applicants miss this point, which is the main distinction between rejected and accepted job applications. Do not list tasks or jobs that didn’t have any results. Try to highlight the results achieved by each task you performed. Your resumé must establish what you have achieved or accomplished by carrying out the jobs or tasks.

Even the smallest of jobs must state and highlight the accomplishments or results of the said task. For instance, if you are applying as an administrative assistant, instead of writing in your resumé 'rearranged filing system', you should rephrase it to ' managed to enhance team productivity 15% by reorganizing the filing system'.

Mentioning such results sets your resumé apart from dozens of others.

5. Explanations of Anything Negative

Everybody has a list of dark stories in their past. But what everybody doesn't need, is putting them in their resumé.

Have you ever seen any advertisement which highlights the negative aspects of the product in question? No, right? Your resumé is a promotional document of your personality. It doesn't need to throw any kind of light on the negativities of your life, so make sure you skip that part. Employers don't like negative people.

If you really want to explain yourself, then the right time for that is doing that in person, after you have scored an interview.

6. Including Personal Details

Employers aren't really interested in your marital status, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity, or hobbies or anything personal. At this stage, the hiring managers are just discovering candidates worthy of the job, they don't need to know you on a personal level. So you do not need to put in all your personal information in your resumé. Just mention your name, state, city and contact information.

With the advent of technology, resumés are being emailed to hiring managers. Anyone can intercept those emails and rob your private information like your social security number and the likes. So to avoid the identity thieves lurking around and for your own safety, you need to exclude any personal information from your resumé.

7. Blatant lies

Blatant lies are a notorious mistake that most job seekers commit. You don't have to brag about things you never did or mention attending colleges that don't exist.

Take it from the experts. Rosemary Haefner, who is currently the chief human-resources officer at CareerBuilder, says that candidates should focus and highlight the skills they can offer. Don't just make up skills that you don't possess. Hiring managers’ are more forgiving than you realize. They would consider giving the job to a candidate who has three out of five skills required for the job. But if you mention things that clearly don't exist, there is no chance you can land that job.

8. Grammatical Mistakes

Make sure your resume does not have any grammatical mistakes or typing errors. It will portray a very careless and dumb impression. Before sending your resume, run it through any online software, to make sure it is free of all errors.

Also, make sure it has no factual errors, like spelling mistakes in the company's name or mentioning the wrong city or state.

9. Inconsistent formatting

Your resumé's format is equally important as the content. And this is what experts say. Amanda Augustine, who is a career-advice expert and spokesperson for TopRésumé says that the format of your resume should make it easier for the hiring manager to scan the document and pick out all your key qualifications in a single glance. Don't complicate your document by choosing crazy fonts or formats.

Stick to a single format throughout your resume, it will project a neat and organized impression.

10. Mentioning Salary Expectations

Unless it is asked in the job description, do not include your salary expectations. That is something you talk about in your interview.