7 Mistakes That Destroy Your Resume

Read time: 3 minutes 22 seconds

Hey there 👋 - it's Abbhi

Welcome to Career Confidence 🤝 

👋 to everyone reading this newsletter and gaining confidence in your career.

Today I'll discuss 7 mistakes that destroy your resume (and how to fix them).

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Alright, let's dive into the 7 resume mistakes that get you rejected (and how to fix them).

There’s No ‘Perfect Resume’

I’m sure you’ve heard 100s of different ‘rules’ for resumes.

They’ll differ by industry and by country. But these basic mistakes are universal. And leads to rejections.

Ready to get started?

Mistake #1: Listing Soft Skills

Show > tell. Don't list 'great communicator' (I beg of you)

Integrate soft skills into your experiences.

Takeaway: Don’t create a list of soft skills at the top or bottom of your resume. Instead - integrate experiences that show your soft skills on your resume.

Example - “Collaborated with 15+ stakeholders to create business plan and launch new product”

Mistake #2: Inconsistent Formatting

Keep the same:

• Font

• Color

• Sentence Structure

This seems small. But it’s important. Different formatting will stick out. And you want the focus to be on your value, not on your font.

Mistake #3: Grammar Mistakes

Triple check your grammar.

Grammar mistakes will take attention away from your resume and value.

Some recruiters don’t care about grammar mistakes, but many do. And it’ll draw attention away from the value on your resume.

Mistake #4: No Results

Include what you did, how you did it, and your impact.

Most jobseekers don’t add results or impact. But recruiters love seeing your impact. Here are some example…

❌ Analyzed various data sets in the marketing field

❌ Helped team setup 10+ meetings with stakeholders

❌ Raised revenue for company by building financial model

✅ Improved customer experience by 20% and identified new market opportunities through administering 20+ customer interviews to understand the user perspective

✅ Prioritized 20+ technology components to build, buy, or partner through orchestrating an executive alignment workshop and conducting group exercises with the client

✅ Raised retention by 25% and customer satisfaction by 5% through analysis on user cancellations using Excel & SQL

Another mistake - not quantifying your experiences.

A few ways to do this…

• Monetary savings

• Project scope & scale

• Time-based achievements

• Metric-based outcomes relevant to your industry

Get 10+ ways to quantify resume bullets here (for free).

Mistake #5: Don’t Lie

Easy one. Lying will get you in trouble down the line.

Don’t do it. No matter what.

Mistake #6: Corporate Jargon

Recruiters aren't experts in your field. Don't use jargon.

And remove abbreviations.

Your friend (not in the industry) should understand your resume.

Mistake #7: Not Selling Your Story

Match keywords to your target role. And mirror the language on the job description.

This will sell your story.

How do you match keywords? Use resymatch, ChatGPT, or LinkedIn Builder.

Dive into my full keyword guide here. 

Now…

Don’t make these 7 mistakes. And you’ll have a great resume.

P.S.

If you’d like more help, I’ve got your back:

Start landing job offers with my 1:1 coaching program and go from 100s of rejections to 2-3 job offers in 12 weeks. I've created a program guide to walkthrough my entire program.

» Get instant access here for $0. (Apply to be on the waitlist)

Picture of the week

Here’s a pic from my brother’s bday picnic last week :)

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