Top Resume Mistakes That Cost You Interviews

The Uncomfortable Truth About Your Resume

Here's something most career advice won't tell you: your resume is probably getting rejected before a human being ever looks at it. Applicant tracking systems filter out roughly 75% of resumes before they reach a recruiter's desk. Of the ones that do get through, recruiters spend an average of 6-7 seconds on the initial scan.

That means your resume has to survive two gatekeepers — an algorithm and a distracted human — in a matter of seconds. Most resumes fail at one or both stages, and the reasons are almost always fixable.

These are the mistakes I see most often, ranked by how much damage they do.

Mistake #1: Sending the Same Resume to Every Job

This is the most common and most costly mistake. A generic resume tries to appeal to everyone and ends up compelling to no one.

Why It Fails

ATS systems compare your resume against the specific job description. If the posting asks for "data visualization" and your resume says "created charts," you might get filtered out — even though you've done the exact work they need.

The Fix

For each application, do a keyword pass:

1. Read the job description and highlight the 8-10 most important skills and terms
2. Check whether those exact phrases appear in your resume
3. Incorporate the missing ones into your bullet points (only if they're honest)

This doesn't mean rewriting from scratch. Keep a master resume with all your experience, then adjust 5-10 bullet points per application. It takes 15-20 minutes and dramatically improves your hit rate.

Job description says: "Experience with cross-functional stakeholder management"

Before: Worked with other teams on product launches
After:  Led cross-functional stakeholder management across engineering,
        design, and marketing for 4 product launches, reducing
        time-to-market by 18%

Mistake #2: Listing Responsibilities Instead of Results

This is the difference between a resume that reads like a job description and one that reads like a highlight reel. Most resumes tell employers what the candidate was supposed to do. Strong resumes show what they actually accomplished.

The Responsibility Trap

Bullet points that start with "Responsible for..." or "Managed..." without outcomes are the resume equivalent of saying "I showed up." Every person who held your title had similar responsibilities. What separates you is what you delivered.

The Fix: The "So What?" Test

After writing each bullet point, ask "So what?" If the answer isn't in the bullet, rewrite it.

Notice the pattern: every strong bullet has a number. Revenue generated, time saved, percentage improved, people managed, projects delivered. If you can quantify it, quantify it.

Mistake #3: Poor Formatting That Breaks ATS Parsing

You spent hours on the content, but the formatting prevents the ATS from reading it correctly. This is more common than people realize.

What Breaks ATS Systems

• Multi-column layouts. Many ATS systems read left to right across both columns, jumbling your content.
• Headers and footers. Some systems skip these entirely, so your contact info disappears.
• Text in images or graphics. ATS can't read images. Those skill bars and infographic sections? Invisible to the algorithm.
• Unusual fonts. Stick with Arial, Calibri, Georgia, or Times New Roman.
• Tables for layout. Some systems can't parse table cells correctly.

The Fix

Use a clean, single-column layout with standard section headers:

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE  (not "Where I've Made an Impact")
EDUCATION                (not "Academic Journey")
SKILLS                   (not "My Toolkit")

ATS systems look for standard headers. Creative section names might look nice to humans but confuse the software. Save the creativity for your portfolio.

Mistake #4: A Weak or Missing Professional Summary

The top third of your resume is prime real estate. If it's wasted on an objective statement from 2005 ("Seeking a challenging position where I can utilize my skills..."), you've lost the reader before they hit your experience section.

What Works Instead

A professional summary — 2-3 sentences — that immediately communicates three things:

1. Who you are (title + years of experience)
2. What you're best at (2-3 specific skills)
3. What you've delivered (one headline result)

"Senior product manager with 8 years of experience in B2B SaaS. Specialized in platform strategy and data-driven roadmap prioritization. Led the launch of a self-serve product tier that generated $2.4M ARR in its first year."

This tells the recruiter everything they need to know in 6 seconds. Tailor it for each application by swapping the specialization to match what the role emphasizes.

Mistake #5: Including Irrelevant Experience

If you have 15 years of experience, your resume doesn't need to describe your college internship. If you're applying for a marketing role, your three years in food service aren't helping (unless you're framing transferable skills very specifically).

The Rule of Relevance

Every line on your resume should earn its space by doing one of three things:

• Demonstrating a skill the job requires
• Showing a pattern of growth and increasing responsibility
• Providing social proof (notable companies, impressive metrics)

If a bullet point doesn't do at least one of these, cut it. A focused one-page resume beats a padded two-page resume every time.

When Two Pages Are Justified

Two pages are acceptable if you have 10+ years of relevant experience, publications or patents that matter for the role, or extensive technical projects. Even then, the first page should be able to stand on its own. If a recruiter only reads page one, they should already want to call you.

Mistake #6: Typos and Grammatical Errors

This feels obvious, but typos remain one of the top reasons recruiters reject resumes. A CareerBuilder survey found that 77% of hiring managers immediately disqualify resumes with typos.

Why It Matters More Than You Think

It's not about grammar pedantry. Typos signal carelessness. If you didn't proofread the most important document in your job search, the hiring manager wonders what your work product will look like.

The Fix

• Don't rely solely on spell check. It won't catch "manger" when you meant "manager" or "lead" when you meant "led."
• Read your resume backward, sentence by sentence. This forces your brain to read what's actually there instead of what you expect to see.
• Have someone else read it. You've looked at your own resume too many times. Fresh eyes catch what yours miss.
• Print it out. People catch more errors on paper than on screen.

Mistake #7: No Metrics or Context

Even when candidates include results, they often strip out the context that makes those results impressive.

"Increased sales by 15%" sounds decent. "Increased sales by 15% in a declining market where the industry average was -3%" sounds exceptional. Same achievement — wildly different impression.

Adding Context

For every metric on your resume, consider adding:

• Timeframe: "in 6 months" vs. "over 3 years"
• Scale: "across a team of 4" vs. "across 200 employees"
• Comparison: "exceeding the target by 40%" or "highest in the department"
• Difficulty: "during a company-wide hiring freeze" or "with zero additional budget"

Context turns good bullets into memorable ones.

Fix Your Resume Before Your Next Application

Every one of these mistakes is fixable, and fixing even two or three of them will noticeably increase your interview rate. Start with the highest-impact change: tailoring your resume to each job description.

If you want to accelerate the process, Superpower Resume analyzes your resume against any job description and identifies missing keywords, weak bullet points, and formatting issues automatically. It's the fastest way to go from "generic resume" to "tailored and optimized" for every application.

Sources

• Bureau of Labor Statistics: Employment Projections and Occupational Outlook
• Harvard Business Review: How to Write a Resume That Stands Out
• Forbes: Resume Mistakes That Are Costing You The Job