What is the single most damaging mistake?

Contact details in the header region, because it can make you unreachable while everything else about the application looks fine.

How do I find my own typos?

Read it backwards, one line at a time. It breaks the sentence-level prediction that makes you read what you meant to write rather than what is there.

The Resume Mistakes That Actually Cost Interviews

Last updated 2026-08-04

Ranked roughly by cost. The first group can eliminate you before a human reads a word; the second group loses you the six-second scan; the third are polish issues that matter only once you are already competitive — which is exactly when they start to matter a lot.

A bullet that scores well has four parts. Most rejected bullets are missing the last two.

Group 1: mistakes that can eliminate you automatically

Contact details in the page header or footer, where many parsers do not look.
A two-column layout that interleaves on extraction.
A resume exported as an image — zero extractable text.
No email address, or a malformed one.
Inconsistent date formats, which cause roles to be read as having no dates.
Creative section headings that parsers do not recognize.
A password-protected or corrupted file.

Group 2: mistakes that lose the six-second scan

No professional summary, leaving the highest-attention region blank.
Weak openers — "Worked on", "Helped with", "Responsible for".
No numbers anywhere, making every claim unverifiable.
Duties listed instead of achievements.
A thin or missing skills section.
Bullets that wrap to three lines and get skipped.
Burying the most relevant role below less relevant ones.
Generic summaries that could belong to anyone.

Group 3: polish issues that matter once you are competitive

Typos, especially in your own job title or a company name.
Mixed tenses within a single role.
Inconsistent bullet punctuation.
First-person pronouns.
An unprofessional email address.
A file named "resume_final_v3.pdf".
Listing "Microsoft Word" as a skill.

Frequently asked questions

What is the single most damaging mistake?: Contact details in the header region, because it can make you unreachable while everything else about the application looks fine.
How do I find my own typos?: Read it backwards, one line at a time. It breaks the sentence-level prediction that makes you read what you meant to write rather than what is there.

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