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11 resume mistakes that make hiring managers dismiss you immediately

A less-than-professional email address

11 resume mistakes that make hiring managers dismiss you immediately

Spelling and grammar mistakes

Spelling and grammar mistakes

This one may seem obvious, but it cannot be overstated — spelling and grammar mistakes are a sure-fire way to get your résumé thrown into the junk pile, and they're so easy to fix. All it takes is a few extra minutes of perusing, and perhaps a second set of eyes, to fix this big résumé no-no.

Writing "whorehouse" instead of "warehouse" can be a mortifying spelling mistake — and, yes, it's happened.

Social-media URLs that are not related to the targeted position

Social-media URLs that are not related to the targeted position

"If you have an online footprint, and you've bothered to include it in your resume, I'm gonna click," Benjamin writes. You had better make sure all your links are on point.

Links to your opinionated blogs, Pinterest page, or Instagram account have no business taking up prime résumé real estate. "Candidates who tend to think their personal social media sites are valuable are putting themselves at risk of landing in the 'no' pile," Nicolai says.

"But you should list relevant URLs, such as your LinkedIn page or any others that are professional and directly related to the position you are trying to acquire," she says.

Inconsistent formatting

Inconsistent formatting

The format of your résumé is just as important as its content, Augustine says.

She says the best format is the format that will make it easiest for the hiring manager to scan your résumé and still be able to pick out your key qualifications and career goals.

Once you pick a format, stick with it. If you write the day, month, and year for one date, then use that same format throughout the rest of the résumé.

Present tense for a past job

Present tense for a past job

Never describe past work experience using the present tense. Only your current job should be written in the present tense, Alyssa Gelbard, career expert and founder of career-consulting firm Résumé Strategists, says.

Outdated, hard-to-read fonts

Outdated, hard-to-read fonts

"Don't use Times New Roman and serif fonts, as they're outdated and old-fashioned," Amy Hoover, president of Talent Zoo, says. "Use a standard, sans-serif font like Arial."

Also, be aware of the font size, she says. Your goal should be to make it look nice and sleek — but also easy to read.

Curly-tailed fonts are also a turn-off, according to O'Donnell. "People try to make their résumé look classier with a fancy font, but studies show they are harder to read and the recruiter absorbs less about you."

Details that give away your age

Details that give away your age

If you don't want to be discriminated against for a position because of your age, it's time to remove your graduation date, says Catherine Jewell, author of "New Résumé, New Career."

Another surprising way your résumé could give away your age: double spaces after a period. While many people were taught to type that way in school, it's now an outdated practice.

Too many bullets

Too many bullets

In the same vein, you can also overload your résumé with too many bullet points, which Augustine calls "death by bullets."

"If absolutely everything is bulleted, it has the same effect as big dense blocks of text — your eyes just glaze over it," she says.

Augustine explains that bullets are only to be used to draw attention to the most important information. "If you bullet everything, everything is important, which means really nothing stands out," she says.

"If you're in marketing and you've lost me in the first three bullets, I have concerns," writes Benjamin.

Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns

Your résumé shouldn't include the words "I," "me," "she," or "my," says Tina Nicolai, executive career coach and founder of Resume Writers' Ink.

"Don't write your résumé in the third or first person. It's understood that everything on your résumé is about you and your experiences."

Too much text

Too much text

When you use a 0.5-inch margin and eight-point font in an effort to get everything to fit on one page, this is an "epic fail," says J.T. O'Donnell, a career and workplace expert, founder of career-advice site Careerealism.com, and author of "Careerealism: The Smart Approach to a Satisfying Career."

She recommends lots of white space and no more than a 0.8 margin.

Amanda Augustine, a career-advice expert for TopResume, agrees, warning particularly against dense blocks of text.

"Let's be honest: You're looking this over quickly, you're glancing through it. Your eyes glaze over when you get to a big, long paragraph," she says.

Forgetting to include keywords

Forgetting to include keywords

While we're not suggesting you cram your résumé full of jargony buzzwords, not including keywords pertinent to the job and industry you're applying for is not just a missed opportunity — it could indicate that you don't have the specific experience for the job your recruiter is looking for.

"There have been times when I command + F the crap out of résumés," Benjamin writes.

"This isn't fool proof, but if I'm looking for an iOS Engineer, for example, and the words 'iOS' or 'Objective-C' don't even make a cameo appearance in someone's résumé, I have to furrow my brow, read a little deeper, and figure out what the heck is going on," she explains.

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