10 resume mistakes that quietly cost you interviews

The list

Each one is small. Together they decide the shortlist.

• A two-column layout that scrambles when parsed
• Contact details trapped in the page header
• A summary that says 'hard-working team player' and nothing measurable
• Bullets that start with 'Responsible for'
• No dates, or dates in three different formats
• Skills section listing 40 keywords with no evidence in the experience
• Job titles that are internal jargon instead of market titles
• Photos, ratings bars and skill percentages that parsers ignore
• Three pages for five years of experience
• The same CV sent to every posting

Fix the top three first

Layout, contact block, and the summary. Those three cover most parsing failures and most recruiter first impressions — and they take under twenty minutes to correct.

Then measure

Track your application-to-interview rate over ten applications. If it is under 10%, the problem is usually the CV. If it is above 20% but offers do not follow, the problem has moved to the interview — and that is a better problem to have.