HR pros reveal what they don’t want to see on a resume

There are many ingredients to a great resume. You need strong concise language, relevant experience and concrete achievements, to name a few. Even if you do include all of the above, some things can still ruin the taste for recruiters and hiring managers.

We asked recruiters and HR pros about some of their biggest resume turnoffs, red flags and instant disqualifiers.

Listing irrelevant clubs, activities and hobbies

When you’re early in your career or fresh out of college, it’s tempting to put everything you’ve ever done on your resume. Since you don’t have much experience, you want to present as well-rounded as possible.

This can be a mistake, says Amelia Sax, an HR analyst and recruiter at the AdTech company MediaMath.

“Don't drag out irrelevant experiences just because you’re early in your career,” she says. “If you have a three-page resume right out of college, and it's all clubs, that’s not useful to me. Don’t just put something on for the sake of it or to look like you were busy in undergrad. Irrelevant stuff can count against you.”

Related: Your resume summary statement is a chance to brag. Here's how to do it well.

Recruiters say listing clubs and extracurriculars can be helpful if they’re relevant or you held a leadership position and can point to specific achievements. “If all you did was pay dues, don’t include it,” says Kristina Minyard, founder of HRecruit, LLC.

A photo of yourself

There are a few reasons not to include a photo on your resume. First of all, it’s out of touch with current norms, it takes up precious real estate, and unless you have a killer professional headshot, a DIY selfie can look pretty goofy.

A bigger issue, Minyard and Sax agree, is that photos reintroduce bias that recruiters work hard to take out. Today, recruiters remove names, addresses and any information that’s too personal, in order to ensure a fair hiring process.

Photos are also often incompatible with algorithms and applicant tracking systems, and can get your resume booted on a technical error, says Sax.

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This doubles for non-traditionally formatted resumes, that include graphics, tables, or other designed elements. I’ll say here:There’s not a clear consensus among recruiters on designed or non-traditionally formatted resumes, except that they should be easy to read and in touch with the standards of your industry. However, Keirsten Greggs, a recruiter who runs her own firm and consults with companies like Visa, warns that some special elements, like tables (a growing trend on resumes) can also cause issues for tracking systems.

Copy-pasting the job description

Jobseekers often worry (rightfully!) about keywords and making sure they have the right ones on their resume to please both the algorithm and hiring managers. This is a real concern. But you shouldn’t go overboard, recruiters say.

Greggs’ single biggest pet peeve is when candidates copy and paste sections of a job description into their resume, cover letter or summary statement. She recommends using a word cloud generator when trying to identify the most important skills and qualities to highlight. The words that show up the most are things that are most important to the job.

Empty jargon, clichés and buzzwords

While none of the recruiters I spoke with said they frown on specific words or phrases, each emphasized that it’s still important to choose your language wisely.

“If you are just throwing buzzwords together like ‘I am a self-motivated, go-getter’ or a ‘motivated, proven, career professional with strong business acumen,’ but you don’t tell me about something you’ve accomplished, you’ll just sound very generic, and you’re not making the most of your opportunity to get our attention,” she says.

Related: You might need to take a break from the job search. Here are 6 ways to use the hiatus to your advantage.

“Oversaturating your resume with buzzwords is absolutely a red flag,” says Greggs. “When folks overuse words like ‘manage,’ ‘responsible for,’ [or] ‘execute,’ if you’re not backing that up, that’s when it’s an issue.”

Exaggerated job titles

“Don’t pretend you’re further along in your career by inflating your title,” says Greggs. “Exaggerating your experience or using cutesy metaphorical job titles does not make you look good.”

In other words, if you were a cashier at Target, don’t try to convince a recruiter you were a “retail specialist.” Greggs says she’s seen applicants use terms like “czar” or “wizard.” She concedes that they’ll catch her attention — but in the wrong way.

“You know, it does the trick. It gets my attention. But often, those joke titles are used to mask the fact that there’s no substance, so then I’m irritated that you got my attention.”

Minyard says she sometimes sees applicants with “engineer” in their title who don’t meet the definition of an engineer in the industry they’re applying to.

“Make sure you’re using an appropriate title, one that will be recognizable and meaningful to companies,” she says.

Lies and exaggerations in general

Everyone exaggerates a little on resumes: We say we led a project we assisted with. We make a basic responsibility sound complex. But where’s the line?

“When you can’t speak to it in an interview, that’s the problem” says Greggs. “Because if it’s something extraordinary, they’re going to ask you. And it’s pretty obvious when you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Minyard believes it’s best to stick to the facts because the rewards aren’t worth the risks. “Heightened expectations for your work will only hurt you in the end,” she says. “Over-promising can hurt your chances for raises, bonuses and career progression.”

No (or vague) dates

Behind photos on a resume, Minyard says the next biggest red flag she sees is when people don’t use dates for each job they’ve had or include confusing ranges for their work experiences.

“If you put 2020-2020, was that one day or the entire year?” she says. “If there’s something like that, hiring managers always ask us about it. “If you look like you’re trying to hide something on your resume, then we’re already a little bit suspicious. You don’t want to introduce suspicion into the process.”

Microsoft Word

C’mon, now. It’s 2022.

Don’t fear — you don’t need to be perfect

None of these mistakes necessarily mean that your resume is headed to the trash. It’s best to remember that, above all else, recruiters and hiring managers just want to see that you are qualified for the job they’re trying to fill.

“Unless I’m hiring you to write resumes, it’s okay if you don’t have a perfect resume,” says Minyard. “I’m not here to judge your skills at resume writing. I’m here to judge your skills for a particular job. Just do the best you can to communicate those skills.”

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