Common Resume Mistakes (and How to Fix Each One)
Updated 2026-10-12
The most common resume mistakes are listing duties instead of results, opening with a buzzword summary, typos and messy formatting, running too long, using layouts that break when software reads them, and sending the same resume to every job. All of them are fixable in an afternoon.
None of these mistakes mean you are bad at your job. They mean your resume is bad at describing your job, which is a much easier problem. Below, each mistake gets a short roast and a real fix.
Mistake 1: Your bullets are a job description
If your bullets could be pasted into the original job posting without anyone noticing, they describe the role, not you. “Responsible for customer inquiries” tells the reader that customer inquiries existed. Congratulations to them.
Fix it by starting each bullet with what you did and adding the result or the scale. If nothing changed because of you, at least say how much of it you did.
Responsible for customer inquiries and complaints at the front desk of the Lakeside Inn.
Resolved guest inquiries and complaints at the Lakeside Inn front desk.
Same facts, but now you are doing the work instead of being near it.
Mistake 2: A summary made entirely of adjectives
“Highly motivated, results-driven, detail-oriented team player with a passion for excellence.” This sentence has been on so many resumes that it has seniority. It tells the reader nothing because every applicant claims it.
Fix it by leading with your job title or role, then two or three specific strengths that match the job. If you cannot think of anything specific, delete the summary. No summary beats a generic one.
Highly motivated, results-driven team player with a passion for excellence and 4 years of experience as a dental assistant.
Dental assistant with 4 years of experience.
The only real information was at the very end. Now it is the whole point.
Mistake 3: Typos and inconsistent formatting
Nothing undercuts “detail-oriented” like “detial-oriented”. Typos are the mistake readers notice fastest, and the one most likely to be read as carelessness rather than bad luck.
Inconsistent formatting sends the same signal more quietly: dates written three ways, some bullets with periods and some without, one job title in bold and the next in italics. Pick a style and apply it everywhere.
- Read it out loud, slowly, start to finish.
- Check every company name, product name and title for exact spelling.
- Write all dates the same way (for example “Mar 2022 to Jan 2024” everywhere).
- Use one font, and no more than two sizes for body text and headings.
Mistake 4: It is too long, or full of ancient history
Your resume is not an autobiography. If you have a few years of experience and three pages, something is padding: a high school job, a list of every software you have opened once, or “References available upon request”, which everyone already assumes.
Fix it by trimming old and unrelated roles to one line each, cutting skills you would not want to be tested on, and keeping the most space for your most recent, most relevant work. One page is common for early career, two is normal for experienced candidates. More than that needs a very good reason.
Mistake 5: A layout that falls apart when software reads it
That gorgeous template with icons, skill bars, text boxes and three columns may turn into word soup when an applicant tracking system parses it. Skill bars are a special case: “Communication: four out of five dots” is not information, and nobody knows what the missing dot is.
Fix it with standard headings, a mostly single-column layout, real text instead of images, and contact details in the body of the page. Design can still look good. It just has to survive being read by a machine first.
Mistake 6: Sending one resume to every job
The “spray and pray” resume is written for no job in particular, so it fits no job in particular. Readers skim for evidence of the specific role they are filling. If they have to work to find it, they often do not.
Fix it by tailoring the summary, the order of your bullets and your skills list to each posting, using the posting's own terms where they honestly describe your work. Resume Roast can do this part: paste the job posting with your resume, and the rewrite targets that job using only what your resume already says.
Mistake 7: Details that do not belong
Some things are on resumes out of habit rather than usefulness. In the US, they mostly just take up space or raise questions you did not need raised.
- An email address you created at fourteen. “partyking_2009” is not a professional brand.
- Your full street address. City and state are enough.
- A photo, date of birth or marital status (norms differ by country, but in the US, leave them off).
- “References available upon request”. Yes, we know.
- An objective that says you want “a challenging position”. Every position is challenging if you are underqualified.
Questions people ask
- What is the single most common resume mistake?
- Listing duties instead of results. It is everywhere, because most people start writing their resume from their old job description.
- Is a two-page resume a mistake?
- Not if the content earns it. Two pages is normal for experienced candidates. Two pages of padding is the mistake, not the page count.
- Should I explain gaps on my resume?
- You do not need to justify them on the page. If a gap is long, a short, honest line (caregiving, study, relocation) can answer the question before it is asked.
- How can I find mistakes in my own resume?
- Read it aloud, ask someone blunt to read it, or upload it to Resume Roast for a free roast that points out vague bullets, buzzwords and formatting problems with a fix for each.