- Ethan Evans says résumés often fail by listing activities instead of showcasing effective results.
- Recruiters skim résumés quickly, so clarity and conciseness are crucial for success.
- You must also list your education and certifications correctly and include your interests.
I've reviewed more than 10,000 résumés and conducted more than 2,500 interviews in my career as a VP at multiple companies, including Amazon .
I handled recruitment at three start-ups, and currently, I guide individuals through their job search processes. I am well-versed in what recruiters and hiring managers look for in a resume—and which errors might cause candidates to lose out on opportunities.
The issue at hand and the objective
I frequently encounter six common errors. The initial trio tends to be the most harmful, and approximately ninety percent of resumes include at least one of these issues.
Hiring managers and recruiters face immense pressure and typically scan resumes at breakneck speed. It’s crucial that your resume is tailored to grab their attention swiftly. Ideally, they should glance over it and conclude that interviewing you could be valuable.
Here are the three biggest mistakes that could cost you the job you apply for.
1. No results, only activities
This is the most common mistake I see on résumés. People say they "wrote code," "managed employees," or "worked on X project."
Senior performers, however, know they're valued for their impact and make a point to show the results of their work.
Almost every point on your resume can be reframed to highlight how your contributions mattered and demonstrate that your involvement had a beneficial impact on the team, the product, and financial outcomes.
Below are several tips to assist with accomplishing this:
- If feasible, include links to your accomplishments. Individuals often overstate or fabricate information on resumes, yet nothing conveys “my work is genuine” better than a direct link to the project.
- Your gaze naturally gets attracted to what stands out boldly. Highlight certain words or phrases selectively so that your key achievements get recognized easily.
- Utilize dynamic verbs such as "owned," "constructed," "operated," or "transported." This indicates you were directly involved in an activity instead of merely observing it.
- Individuals trust particular numerical values, such as amounts in dollars. Incorporate these whenever feasible.
2. No objective
Without an objective, a recruiter or hiring manager has to guess whether you want the job. If you're a recruiter with a pile of résumés, you're not going to waste your time doing any guessing.
A clear objective specifies the type of position you aim to secure in your upcoming employment, and an effective objective should be concise and straightforward, allowing it to be quickly scanned. Avoid using overly subjective language when describing yourself.
A representation of the equation for a senior engineering position could be, " Looking for a position as a Senior Engineer where I can utilize my verified capability in launching large-scale services to provide significant innovations that benefit the company. "
The initial section merely indicates the position you're aiming for. This becomes crucial especially if you wish to pursue something distinct from your previous employment.
The latter section enables you to outline your most significant credentials for a position. Emphasize the primary factor that will make your resume get into the "call" stack.
The third section highlights your role as support for both the manager and the organization. Even though you might be seeking a fulfilling position for yourself, the manager isn’t primarily concerned with offering such an opportunity to anyone. It’s important to communicate that your focus extends beyond personal gain; you’re committed to adding value for your future supervisor as well.
Sure, please provide your objective from your executive coaching resume so I can help you rephrase it while maintaining the original meaning, context, and tone.
Goal: Offer extensive professional growth opportunities, facilitating moves into senior management roles.
Demonstrated executive leadership across multiple $500M+ businesses Across various categories like games, videos, applications, and music. Experience in global leadership roles. teams 800+ . Technical inventor; 60+ issued patents .
3. Too many words
A lot of resumes tend to be lengthy, often extending over three pages or utilizing a small font size to fit everything onto one page.
The error lies in penning down what we wish to express instead of focusing on information crucial for the reader. These instances are termed as “pleasing phrases.” Such expressions emerge when a resume begins with the applicant detailing affirmative statements regarding their self-perceived qualities. Here’s how it typically appears:
A driven individual seeking a supportive setting to apply my technical abilities and enthusiasm to an important initiative. Known as an excellent team member and guide. Flexible with a quick learning curve.
It’s common to wish to highlight our best qualities when applying for jobs. However, busy managers who review numerous resumes each day tend to overlook this approach since it fails to demonstrate what skills the applicant actually possesses.
The guideline to adhere to is "demonstrate, don’t explain." Should you be a quick study, add bullet points to your CV highlighting this skill. Such as: Gained knowledge of X and implemented it in project Y, progressing from initial attempt to delivering to customers within nine weeks.
Your objective with your resume should be highlighting your top three achievements for each position before the hiring manager. Writing excessively can cause them to overlook your key successes. It’s advisable to maintain your resume below 1,000 words.
I spent just two hours crafting my resume using Microsoft Word; at 700 words, it encapsulates a three-decade-long career journey.
After crafting a strong resume, watch out for these additional three errors prior to submitting your application for any position.
4. Enhancing Performance with the Application Tracking System
A lot of resumes attempt to squeeze in keywords at the beginning to get past the applicant tracking systems. However, this strategy has two major issues.
More than 80% of available positions are offered to individuals who have a professional network connection related to the job. Concentrating on passing through the Applicant Tracking Systems implies you’re targeting roles where you lack such connections, thus putting yourself up against numerous competitors.
The second issue is that this renders the resume difficult for humans to read, and it hides your most significant achievements within the main content of the document.
The best strategy is to craft your resume with human readers in mind, and subsequently use your connections to ensure it reaches someone willing to review it. Should you wish to incorporate keywords, add them towards the end under a "Skills" section.
5. Placing educational qualifications and certifications incorrectly
For those who are fresh out of school, the typical resume structure involves placing your educational background at the beginning. However, if you possess relevant job experience, then your education section should follow after your work history.
A component of your education segment is your GPA. Should you choose not to include your GPA, the reviewer might presume it’s low. It would be more advantageous to provide it if you scored above average (a 3.3 or higher).
Although you might safely eliminate your GPA from your resume after being out of school for ten years, if you graduated with honors, it could be beneficial to retain it indefinitely.
At the end of your resume is where you should include most certifications, unless you possess a crucial factor such as security clearance or a required certification for the position you're aiming for. In these cases, it’s better to mention them towards the beginning.
6. Without including hobbies and interests
Ending your resume with brief details about your hobbies, charitable work, and interests offers two advantages.
These hobbies make you more relatable. Should someone reach the end of your CV, they've truly engaged with it. Adding some personal details can help ensure you stand out in their memory.
Secondly, when managers and recruiters reach out to you, they often seek icebreaker topics. They might share interests such as skiing or owning a dog, so mentioning similar activities can increase emotional connection opportunities.
Next steps
Once you feel assured about your resume, avoid delaying further by constantly refining it. Instead, concentrate on building connections to secure a strong recommendation for employment.
The final error I notice is applicants not utilizing their meticulously prepared resume verbiage on LinkedIn effectively. To maximize the benefits of LinkedIn, include your succinct objective statement within the "About" part of your profile. Next, transfer your job descriptions into respective sections of the "Work History."
Update your educational details and additional information regularly so that recruiters can discover you even when you're asleep.
Ethan Evans is a former Amazon VP who has more than 23 years of expertise in business leadership roles.
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