Recruiters often spend less than a minute on a resume before deciding whether to keep it. A few mistakes are enough to get it discarded, even with a strong background. While building CV Rapide, these are the ones we saw most often.
The 7 mistakes
- A vague headline: “Student” or “Looking for a job” instead of the target role.
- Duties without results: say what you achieved, not only what you were responsible for.
- Too many pages: one or two pages are enough in most cases.
- A cluttered layout: many colours, fancy fonts, meaningless skill bars.
- Spelling mistakes: they instantly suggest carelessness.
- An unprofessional e-mail address: prefer firstname.lastname.
- The same resume for every job: at least adapt the headline and highlighted skills.
What makes the difference
An effective resume can be skimmed: a clear headline, a two-line summary, experience with action verbs and concrete results, then skills and education.
Practical tip
Read your resume out loud and have someone else proofread it. And to save time on layout, CV Rapide offers professional templates and a ready-to-send PDF.
