The 8 Most Annoying Mistakes Job Seekers Make On Their CVs

A woman who has reviewed more than 40,000
résumés outlines the 8 most annoying mistakes
she sees
• Résumés are a crucial part of any job search.

• If you want to land your dream job, you’ll need to
whip your résumé into shape.
• Résumé Writers’ Ink founder Tina Nicolai shared
some tips on how to go about doing that with
Résumés are important
No one knows that better than Tina Nicolai. She
estimated that she has read more than 40,000
résumés since launching Résumé Writers’ Ink in
2010.
That’s a lot of CVs. Over the years, Nicolai says,
certain annoying mistakes tend to come up quite a lot.

Some of these errors may not seem like a huge
deal. In a competitive job market, though, they
might be the difference from snagging your dream
job and having your résumé thrown in the garbage.
Here are Nicolai’s picks for the most annoying
mistakes you can make on a résumé:

1. Sloppiness
“The biggest mistake job seekers make: They are
sloppy. They pay poor attention to detail. They are
lazy!”
Nicolai said she has seen too many résumés with
typos, unprofessional fonts, outdated information,
and irrelevant information.

2. Summaries that are too long
Summaries are annoying when they are written in a
formal tone and include too many adjectives, she
said.
“After a while, the summaries can read like a
lengthy chapter in a book,” Nicolai told Business
Insider. “It’s better to list a few bullets with
pointed achievements and a branded tagline
stating, ‘Known for achieving XYZ.'”

3. Too many buzzwords
Résumé jargon such as “out of the box,” “team
player,” and “exceptional communicator” are
“baseline expectations in today’s market,” Nicolai
said. “A person who truly is a ‘unique problem
solver who works well in teams’ will convey this
succinctly and creatively on their résumé through a
combination of few words and imagery.”

4. Starting a bullet point with ‘Responsible for’
This is another “lazy thing” she has seen too many
times on résumés.
“Candidates need to understand that starting a
sentence with ‘responsible for’ tells the reader what
the job requirements were supposed to be, but it
does not state that the candidate actually
performed the functions,” Nicolai said. “It does not
state that the candidate was successful in these
functions. Don’t be lazy: Take the extra few
minutes to explain what you accomplished — not
what you were expected to accomplish.”

5. Being too formal
Finally, she said she finds overly formal résumés
annoying because they’re not engaging and don’t
allow the reader to get a good sense of the
applicant’s personality.