Top 6 craziest resume mistakes to avoid in 2022

I’m pretty sure that most of you who are reading this, have experienced the hassle of trying to find work, at some point in life. The innumerable frustrating cycles of searching online for a suitable job, going through the requirements to curate your resume accordingly, drafting a cover letter before applying, finally getting called for an interview, going through the company’s website and practising the answers, wearing formal attire to attend it, and lastly, hearing these words from the HR: “We’ll let you know once we’ve made the decision!”… Tell me about it! And this goes on and on…

The main reason of not getting a job offer is due to the fact that, the interviewee doesn’t portray himself/herself to be valuable to the growth of the company. It’s all about how you choose to market yourself. They say, the moment you graduate from college, and you go out into the world, you begin to start selling yourself. And your resume is the biggest factor or the major tool that can help you succeed in the job market. Yet it is also one of the major reasons that hinders peoples from grabbing the right opportunities.

In this article, I will list 6 most ridiculous mistakes that people make in 2022, while drafting a resume. Some of it are based on my own experiences, as I’ve also been one among the many new graduates who had trouble finding a job. So, here we go:

1. Avoid using modern templates to make colourful resumes!

Get this straight: YOUR RESUME IS NOT A BROCHURE!!!

Wait, I do get the fact that you want to sell yourself, your brand, and create a good impression on the employer. But unless it’s a job in the graphics design field, there is no reason to make your resume stand out, by making it colourful using various cute icons, pie-charts, etc. The employer is looking for pure content — whether you are qualified for the job, if your skillset matches the general requirements, and if your education and/or experience is relevant for the job that you are applying.

I have also made the mistake of using a ‘modern resume’ template online, for my resume. It was my first time applying for a job after college. While browsing for resume templates online, I happened to see this. I thought it would make me look cool if I had a colourful resume with icons and graphics, to replace the words under the skillsets. There were little bar graphs beside each icon to depict the percentage of proficiency. Overall, it looked like a sales brochure for a new car that had just entered the market! And guess what? I never got called back after the first interview.

It isn’t about how colourful your resume looks, or how many aesthetic features it holds. It’s all about how many skills, expertise, and experience you bring to the table. Most employers suggest the resume to be typed in a simple word document, which is very well-organized. Only the headings need to be highlighted or in bold, and everything else should be typed out in simple sentences.

2. Avoid copying and pasting your resume!

I was big on using online templates to draft a resume. I also had copied and pasted from some of my friends’ resumes. There are many of these online resume generators that help draft a custom resume once you fill in the details that they ask of you. I did attend a job interview at a major engineering firm in the past, where I handed out a copy-paste resume. The HR went through it and said, “Oh, we pretty much know if the resume is copied and pasted!”. And again, that opportunity slipped from my hands…

Remember this: The employer can identify if the resume is a copy-paste one. A company’s hiring team goes through many resumes, especially from new graduates. Assuming one person googles for a model resume online and copies it, it’s highly likely that others too will follow suit. The HR can easily type in the phrases from your resume into the web browser, to find out if your resume has been copied from one of the websites!

Avoid copying and pasting into your resume, especially if you are aiming to apply for a job at a MNC. You can use the structure of an online resume model, but keep the words simple and original. That way, the content stands out, there’s less mismatches in the sentences, making it concise, clear, and on-point.

3. Avoid irrelevant hobbies and ridiculous adjectives!

I was waiting at this company’s lobby, a few years ago, to get interviewed for a technical position. That’s when one of my classmates from college came in. Apparently, he too had seen the same job opening online, and had applied for it. So both of us wait and exchange conversations, until he gets called for his interview. It took a long time, and from what I could hear from the lobby, the HR didn’t sound pleased. And after it was finished, I go in for my interview, and after that, I headed to a nearby café with my classmate.

He described how the HR looked at his resume and literally laughed, and even asked him to have a real purpose in life! After that, he was given a long lecture about having clear goals, being presentable, and taking job interviews seriously. My classmate showed me his resume. It was only after I read through it that I realized why he was reprimanded during the interview. He had dedicated a whole section for his hobbies, none of which reflected any significance to the type of job that he was interviewed for! He also had typed in long sentences in his resume like, “An honest and caring individual who…”, “A self-driven, enthusiastic mind…”, etc.

Employers don’t want to see sugar-coated and fluffed-up resumes, neither do they want to look at hobbies that doesn’t provide the necessary experience, as an asset for the position. For example, if you are applying for a journalist position, you can put photography, and/or public speaking in your hobbies. But say if you are applying for a job in the field of engineering, these hobbies will be deemed irrelevant.

Also, avoiding sophisticated-sounding adjectives from the resume makes it more readable, and concise. Remember, employers are only looking for the key-words that match the ones on the job description, so make sure you only include those to market yourself.

4. Avoid irrelevant work experience!

Coming back to the previous story, I was going through the long list of previous work experiences in my classmate’s resume. To my shock and surprise, I realized that I have read like 10 years of his work experiences ever since he started working; starting with his first job as a dishwasher during high-school! Although he was applying for a technical job, most of his work experience didn’t suit what the company was looking for.

When you apply for a job, only add the recent and relevant work experience to your resume. Companies don’t want to know about what you did like 15 to 20 years ago, or about the part-time work that involved flipping burgers at McDonald’s! They are only looking for any work history that you have in a similar field, where the skillset and experience matches what’s needed for the job, that they expect you to do in the company.

5. Avoid unofficial/irrelevant educational certifications.

There are these online courses on various fields of study, from online educational platforms such as Coursera, Udemy, and even offered by universities such as Harvard, Stanford, etc., some which you can attempt for free. Upon completion, one also obtains a certificate from the platform. However, these don’t count as formal education, and it certainly shouldn’t go in your resume, under educational qualifications. Unless you attain a government-approved skilled trade certificate or similar, online courses aren’t generally designed to provide you with all the relevant skills, required to work in any specific field.

Google Skillshop maybe a great platform to learn different software-related courses, but this certification can only be of use if you are looking for a low-paying freelance work online. Even the free online courses from the top universities are of no use in the job market, as they aren’t approved formal degrees. Also, LinkedIn courses are only meant to go to the end of your profile, and not in your resume.

In addition, if you add a previously obtained arts degree in your resume, when applying for a profession in the medical field (unless it is stated to include all previous educational qualifications, which some employers do recommend), it will likely get rejected for the lack of professionalism. The education section in your resume is meant only to showcase updated degrees or certifications that has equipped you with necessary knowledge and training in the field of work. When applying for a job, only add your formal educational qualifications, and certain courses in those programs of study, which is relevant to the position that you’re applying for.

6. Avoid unnecessary personal information.

Although rare, some people still make this mistake in their resumes. They include some of the unnecessary details about them- their photo (unless it’s for a career in modelling, or similar), residential address, country of citizenship (unless stated in job requirements), gendered pronouns, hair/eye color, etc. Not only are these information unwanted and irrelevant, in some cases, these can also backfire your chances for getting called for an interview, especially if the employer holds certain bias against certain group of people.

This is the general rule when it comes down to how much information you should put in your resume: Give the recruiter only what they asked for, in the job posting. If they ask for your photo, address, country of citizenship, or gender in the requirements for the job, it is certainly advised to include such details in your resume. However in any case, a simple, well-formatted, and well-organized resume, with relevant details, are always preferred.