Reviewing Your Resume

Common Mistakes to Avoid and How to Fix Them

A resume is often your impression with a recruiter or employer, which is why it is important to ensure your resume is up to par. As an executive search recruiter, you can imagine that a lot of resumes have come across my desk. I have reviewed 100’s of resumes for anyone from General Managers to COOs, people who have worked for 2 years to 40 years and people from all industries. Experience level doesn’t always correlate to resume quality- anyone can have a great resume regardless of stage in their career; adversely, anyone can fall victim to common resume mistakes.

Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar

As technology becomes a bigger part of our daily lives, proper linguistics becomes less practiced. Texting, messaging, emailing are all done for speed and convenience; we’re just getting our point across! Who cares about semicolons? What’s wrong with my talk-to-text? Although a typo or a missed comma may seem insignificant, it could indicate a lack of attention to detail or professionalism. An easy way to check your resume for errors is to run it by a system such as Microsoft Word or Grammarly. Both tools provide helpful suggestions to make sure your sentences are structured properly and that there are no spelling errors.

Lack of Measurable and Specific Achievement

Many resumes I have seen list vague job duties or give no information about the experience at all- just titles and tenure. Don’t get me wrong, the titles and tenure are crucial, but describing your achievements is really going to give your resume that sizzle. Different companies and industries can use vastly different titles, so only listing a title can be confusing. Employers want to see quantifiable results; instead of saying “responsible for increased sales” try “drove a 20% increase in sales.” It is important to highlight your accomplishments rather than describe your duties.

Inaccurate Content

The more established you are in your career, typically the longer your resume becomes. Trust me, I understand it can be hard sometimes to remember exact dates you worked for a company or the exact amount of oversight you had, but verifying all the information on your resume is accurate will save you a lot of headaches later. It’s much easier to take a few minutes to review the dates, experiences, certifications/education, and contact information on your resume prior to submitting it for review rather than having to explain to the employer why it’s inaccurate. I have unfortunately seen candidates being passed on by hiring authorities due to discrepancies in their resume.

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Avoiding these common mistakes will greatly increase your chances of making a positive impression and advancing in the hiring process. When exploring opportunities, employers meet your resume before they meet you, so let’s make sure you are putting your best foot forward!

By: Kameron Ulrich

May 2025