I’ll never forget the sinking feeling I got when I opened my carefully crafted resume three days after applying to my dream job. There it was, right in my professional summary: “5+ years of experiance.” Experiance. With an “a.”

I’d read that document at least a dozen times. My roommate had reviewed it. I’d even run it through Grammarly. And yet somehow, that glaring typo had sailed through every check and landed directly in a hiring manager’s inbox. Needless to say, I never heard back from that company.

That painful lesson taught me something important: hiring managers often spend just six to seven seconds scanning a resume before deciding whether to continue reading or move on to the next candidate. In that brief window, certain resume red flags can immediately disqualify you from consideration—regardless of how qualified you actually are for the position. One typo cost me an opportunity I really wanted.

After that experience, I became somewhat obsessed with understanding what makes hiring managers skip certain resumes. I spoke with recruiting professionals, reviewed data from LinkedIn’s 2024 Global Talent Trends report, and learned from my own mistakes. What I discovered goes well beyond typos—though those matter more than you might think.

Let’s talk about the most common resume mistakes that make hiring managers immediately move on, and more importantly, how to fix them so your resume gets the attention your experience deserves.

The Most Common Resume Red Flags Hiring Managers Notice Immediately

Understanding what hiring managers look for in resumes starts with knowing what makes them stop reading. These red flags aren’t just minor issues—they signal larger concerns about your professionalism, attention to detail, or fit for the role.

Typos and Grammatical Errors

A single typo might seem minor, but to hiring managers, it raises questions about your attention to detail and professionalism. According to a CareerBuilder survey, 58% of hiring managers will immediately dismiss a resume that contains typos.

This isn’t about being perfect—it’s about demonstrating that you care enough about the opportunity to proofread your application. If you’re applying for roles that require written communication, clear writing, or client-facing work, errors on your resume suggest you might produce similarly careless work on the job.

How to fix it: Read your resume aloud, use tools like Grammarly for a preliminary check, and have a trusted friend or colleague review the final version. Fresh eyes catch mistakes you’ve read past a dozen times.

Unprofessional Email Addresses

Your email address from college—cutiepie2000@email.com or partyanimal99@email.com—might have been fun at 19, but it’s costing you job opportunities now. This type of email address immediately signals a lack of professional awareness.

How to fix it: Create a professional email address using some variation of your name (firstname.lastname@email.com or firstinitiallastname@email.com). It takes five minutes and instantly elevates your professional image.

Generic Objective Statements

“Objective: To obtain a challenging position in a dynamic organization where I can utilize my skills.” This statement tells hiring managers absolutely nothing about you or why you’re a good fit for their specific role.

Modern resumes have largely replaced objective statements with professional summaries that immediately communicate your value proposition. Rather than stating what you want from a job (which the hiring manager already assumes), your summary should articulate what you bring to the table.

How to fix it: Replace your objective with a 2-3 sentence professional summary that highlights your key qualifications, years of experience, and specific value you bring to this type of role. For example: “Digital marketing specialist with 5+ years of experience driving revenue growth through SEO and content marketing. Increased organic traffic by 300% at previous company through strategic content initiatives and data-driven optimization.”

Job-Hopping Without Context

Multiple jobs lasting less than a year can raise concerns about your reliability or ability to commit. However, context matters enormously. Frequent job changes early in your career, while you’re exploring different paths looks very different from three one-year stints in your 30s.

The concern isn’t necessarily about loyalty—companies rarely demonstrate loyalty to employees anymore—but about the time and resources invested in onboarding and training. Hiring managers want to know you’ll stick around long enough to contribute meaningfully.

How to fix it: If you have legitimate reasons for short tenures (company closures, contract work, layoffs, family circumstances), consider adding brief context in your job descriptions. For contract positions, explicitly label them as such with “(Contract)” or “(6-month contract)” next to the role. In your cover letter, address the pattern proactively and focus on what you learned from each experience.

Formatting and Design Red Flags

Content matters, but presentation matters too. Resume formatting mistakes can make even the strongest qualifications hard to parse, and some design choices actively work against you.

Excessive or Inconsistent Formatting

Using twelve different fonts, rainbow colors, or excessive graphics might make your resume stand out—in the worst possible way. While creative fields may allow for more design freedom, most industries prefer clean, professional formatting that puts the focus on your qualifications.

Inconsistent formatting is equally problematic. If you bold some job titles but not others, use bullet points in some sections and paragraphs in others, or randomly vary your spacing, it suggests either carelessness or that you cobbled together different resume versions without properly editing.

How to fix it: Choose one or two professional fonts (like Arial, Calibri, or Garamond) and stick with them throughout. Use formatting elements—bold, italics, bullet points—consistently across similar sections. Maintain uniform margins and spacing. The goal is to create a document that’s easy to scan quickly while looking polished.

Dense Blocks of Text

Remember those six seconds hiring managers spend on your resume? Dense paragraphs full of text make it nearly impossible to extract key information quickly. Your resume should be scannable, with clear sections and concise bullet points that highlight accomplishments.

How to fix it: Convert paragraph-style job descriptions into 3-5 concise bullet points per role. Each bullet should communicate a specific achievement or responsibility using strong action verbs. Keep bullets to one or two lines maximum.

Outdated or Irrelevant Information

Your summer job as a camp counselor from 2008? Probably not relevant to your current marketing director application. Your high school graduation and GPA? Unless you’re a recent graduate, it’s taking up valuable space.

General wisdom suggests focusing on the last 10-15 years of experience unless earlier roles are highly relevant to the position. This helps keep your resume concise while demonstrating current, applicable skills.

How to fix it: Ruthlessly edit your resume to include only information that strengthens your case for this specific role. Older positions can be listed briefly under an “Earlier Career” section without detailed bullets. Remove high school information once you have college credentials or substantial work experience.

Content Red Flags That Undermine Your Qualifications

Beyond formatting and basic professionalism, the substance of what you include on your resume can either strengthen or weaken your candidacy.

Vague or Generic Descriptions

Phrases like “responsible for managing projects” or “helped with various tasks” tell hiring managers nothing about your actual contributions or capabilities. These descriptions could apply to literally anyone.

Strong resume bullets quantify achievements and specify impact. Instead of “managed social media,” try “Increased Instagram engagement by 150% over six months through strategic content planning and community management.” The difference is night and day.

How to fix it: Review every bullet point and ask yourself: Could someone else in a similar role write this exact same thing? If yes, add specificity. Include numbers (percentages, amounts, timeframes), specific tools or methodologies you used, and concrete outcomes you achieved.

Listing Responsibilities Instead of Achievements

Your resume shouldn’t be a job description—it should be a highlight reel of what you’ve accomplished in each role. Hiring managers can assume you performed the basic functions of your job title. What they want to know is how well you performed them and what impact you had.

How to fix it: For each role, identify 3-5 key achievements rather than daily tasks. Think about problems you solved, processes you improved, money you saved, revenue you generated, or recognition you received. Use the CAR method (Challenge-Action-Result) to structure your bullets.

Unexplained Employment Gaps

Employment gaps happen for countless legitimate reasons: caregiving responsibilities, health issues, pursuing education, economic downturns, or simply taking time to figure out your next move. The gap itself isn’t necessarily a red flag—it’s the lack of context that gives hiring managers pause.

When there’s a significant unexplained gap in your employment history, hiring managers are left to wonder. Were you let go for performance issues? Did you struggle to find work? Are you returning from an extended absence and potentially out of touch with industry developments?

How to fix it: Brief, matter-of-fact explanations work best. You don’t need to over-explain or justify your choices. Consider adding a line item for significant gaps: “Career break (2019-2020): Family caregiving responsibilities” or “Career transition period (2021): Completed online coursework in data analytics while exploring new career direction.” In your cover letter, you can expand slightly if relevant to how you’re now ready and excited for this opportunity.

Overused Buzzwords Without Substance

Describing yourself as a “synergistic thought leader who thinks outside the box” sounds impressive until you realize those phrases mean essentially nothing. LinkedIn’s analysis of resume language found that terms like “specialized,” “leadership,” “strategic,” and “focused” appear so frequently they’ve lost meaning.

How to fix it: Replace vague buzzwords with specific examples that demonstrate those qualities. Instead of calling yourself a “strategic thinker,” describe a strategic initiative you developed and implemented. Rather than claiming you’re “results-driven,” show the results you’ve driven.

What Hiring Managers Actually Look for in Resumes

Now that you know what turns hiring managers off, let’s talk about what draws them in. Understanding what hiring managers look for in resumes can transform how you present your experience.

Relevant Skills and Experience

Hiring managers want to see clear alignment between their job requirements and your qualifications. This means customizing your resume for each application isn’t optional—it’s essential. According to Jobscan, 98% of Fortune 500 companies use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to screen resumes, and these systems look for keyword matches between your resume and the job description.

Study the job posting carefully and incorporate relevant keywords naturally throughout your resume, particularly in your skills section and job descriptions. If they’re looking for experience with “project management” and you have it, use that exact phrase rather than just “managing projects.”

Quantifiable Achievements

Numbers provide context and proof of your capabilities. They answer the hiring manager’s implicit question: “So what?” If you managed a team, how many people? If you increased sales, by what percentage? If you improved efficiency, what was the measurable impact?

Research from Jobvite shows that resumes with quantified achievements are 40% more likely to grab attention than those with vague descriptions.

Clear Career Progression

Hiring managers look for evidence that you’ve grown professionally over time. This doesn’t necessarily mean climbing a traditional corporate ladder—it could be expanding responsibilities, developing new skills, or taking on increasingly complex projects.

Even lateral moves can demonstrate progression if you can show how each role built on the previous one or allowed you to develop expertise in different areas.

Professional Presentation

The overall impression your resume makes matters. A well-organized, error-free, professionally formatted resume signals that you understand workplace norms and care about making a good impression. It suggests you’ll bring that same level of professionalism to the job.

This means consistent formatting, appropriate font choices, clear section headers, adequate white space, and a logical flow of information. Your resume should look like it was created by a professional for a professional environment.

Your Resume Review Checklist

Before submitting your next application on your job hunting, run through this checklist to catch resume red flags:

1. Have at least three people proofread for typos and grammatical errors
2. Verify your email address is professional (firstname.lastname format)
3. Replace objective statements with a compelling professional summary
4. Provide context for short job tenures or employment gaps
5. Ensure formatting is consistent throughout (fonts, spacing, bullet points)
6. Convert dense paragraphs to scannable bullet points
7. Remove outdated or irrelevant experience (generally 10-15 years max)
8. Add specific metrics and outcomes to every major achievement
9. Focus on accomplishments rather than just job duties
10. Replace generic buzzwords with specific examples
11. Customize keywords and skills for the specific job posting
12. Show clear career progression and professional growth

The Bottom Line

Your resume is often your first impression—and sometimes your only shot at getting noticed. The good news is that most resume red flags are completely fixable once you know what to look for.

The hiring managers aren’t looking for perfection; they’re looking for professionalism, relevance, and clear evidence that you can do the job well. A resume that avoids these common pitfalls while highlighting your genuine qualifications will stand out in a sea of applications—for all the right reasons.

Take the time to review your resume with fresh eyes, implement these fixes, and present yourself as the qualified professional you are. Your next opportunity might be just one well-crafted resume away.