Ebook 35 Resume Mistakes by Alex BERGHOFEN 2023-02-12

35 resume mistakes
You are making &

How to fix them
By Alex BERGHOFEN
CEO of an Executive Search firm
xMcKinsey
INSEAD Alumnus
All rights reserved: alexberghofen.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
1 Why is a good resume important?
2 Layout/ formatting mistakes
3 Content mistakes
Conclusion

Introduction

Introduction
. firm.
I am the CEO of an Executive Search
I have 22 years experience, 15 years in
Executive Search/ Recruiting. I’m also a
former McKinsey Consultant and hold an
INSEAD MBA.
Candidates often tell me I’m the first person who has given them
real resume feedback. Also, there is a lot of bad resume advice
out there, usually by people with little/ no recruiting experience.
I had assumed it was common knowledge what makes a good

resume. I was wrong.
I’ve reviewed over 10,000 resumes.

95% of resumes are terrible.
4% are acceptable but can still be improved.
I’m on a mission to fight bad resume advice.
As I can’t talk to everyone, I decided to write this ebook.

Chapter One
Why is a good
resume important?

Why is a good resume important?
Because a resume represents you. It’s the first impression

the reader gets. So, the resume must show how great you
are. You want the reader to think: ‘Wow, this candidate
looks amazing, I want to meet him/her’.
Getting the first interview is great, but not the only function
of your resume. You should aim to go into the interview as
the candidate that is already perceived to be a great fit.
A good resume will save time during the interviews. A

resume’s job is NOT only to get you the interview. It
enables you to interview more efficiently. Nearly all
resumes are missing important information. That’s why
you often waste time clarifying things that should have
been obvious from your resume.

Interviews have 3 goals for the candidate:
Build rapport with the interviewer
Get more insights into the position & requirements
Use these insights to show why you are THE candidate

they should hire

A good resume saves time.

It enables you to focus on these three goals. Any minute
you waste clarifying things is a minute you have lost
pursuing these goals.
Examples:
- You must explain the overlap of education and work
experience because of a part-time degree.
- ‘Reason for leaving’ is missing so you must explain this
for each role.
- MM/YY format is not used so you must answer the
question ‘when exactly did you start/ leave’ for each job.
If your resume is unclear, you will answer the same

question in each interview round.
What a waste of your life!

A resume that is visually appealing will

reflect positively on you.
If the resume looks organized, readers will think you

are organized, too (look up the psychological
concept ‘halo effect’).
If your resume looks messy/ crowded, what will the

reader think about you?

Your resume needs to stand by itself.

You will likely meet many people during the interview
process who received no or a minimal briefing on you.
Even headhunters do not get to talk to every person

involved in the hiring process, usually only the hiring
manager and HR/ talent acquisition.
Interviewers rarely brief the next interviewer

extensively. Often the briefing consists of this:
‘you should meet this person, here is the resume’.
You need to fix two areas:

layout/ formatting and content.

Chapter Two
Layout/ formatting
mistakes

Layout / Formatting mistakes
Think resume layout/ formatting doesn’t matter?
Try it out: format your resume with an unusual font like

‘Algerian’ or ‘Harrington’.
Or change the font size to 6 or 16.
Do you see it now?
Who created the resume template you are using?
Someone who has a lot of recruiting experience?
If not, why not?
Get a resume template that was designed by a recruiter

or at least someone who’s done a lot of hiring.
What to avoid?

1. Font size too small: minimum should be 9 or 10.

Only use 9 if you have a lot of white space.
2. A weird font. Stick with common fonts that display

well everywhere. Use sans serif fonts. I
recommend Arial.
3. Too long or too short: two pages with a clear

summary work best for most people. 3 pages is ok
only if you have 20+ years of experience. 4 pages
is never ok. 1 page is only suitable if you have less
than 3 years’ experience. A one pager leaves out a
lot of information. This will slow down the interview
or prevent that you even get one.

4. Not enough white space: white space is easy on

the eyes and makes it less cluttered. It makes your
resume look organized. I strongly prefer a 2-page
resume with white space over a crammed 1-pager.
5. Too much continuous text: use bullet points

instead. It is extremely tiring to read continuous text
on a resume.
6. Too many boxes/ frames/ lines. There should be

none, especially no boxes shaded in grey. These
make the resume look old-fashioned, a risk
particularly for older candidates. Also, this makes
your resume non-ATS compliant which can doom
your application.

7. Excessive use of bold, underlining, italic. Some

people bold or underline a third of their resume.
That is far too much. Use only one way of
formatting. Use it sparingly (5-10 %).
8. YYYY date format is terrible: e.g., a job from

2019-2020: you could have been at this company
for two months, or 24 months. Makes a big
difference. Use MM/YY date format instead.
9. No link to your LinkedIn profile. Make it easy for

your interviewer to look you up online (especially if
your name is common). Include your customized
LinkedIn URL.

10. Unprofessional or confusing email address:

Use a professional email address. Humorous or
casual email addresses are not appropriate for a
job application. If you have multiple given and/or
last names, use an email that is consistent with the
name you are using on the resume. This is also
important if you changed your family name, e.g.,
via marriage.

11. Family name not CAPITALIZED. This is the global

best practice. It shows that you are a global citizen
and do not have an ethnocentric way of thinking.
You understand that not everyone will be able to
differentiate a family name from a given name. This
is esp. important in Asia. E.g., some Asian
candidates will put the family name first, others
might put the given name first. It’s also important if
your family name sounds like a common given
name (e.g., Alexander). CAPITALIZE your family
name.

12. A career goal section is unnecessary and old

fashioned, use a summary instead. The summary
must be in bullet points. You only have 30 seconds
to convey the most important info before a reader
decides next step (discard or read more). There are
two types of readers: the ones that read everything
on a resume and the ones who only read the
summary. A summary is critical for resumes that
are longer than one page.
13. Extracurricular activities/ awards/ academic

papers sections are too long. This might be a
backlog from your first resume as a fresh graduate.
Once you have two years’ work experience, cut this
section down. Leave only the most impressive 2-3
achievements.

14. No ‘languages’ section. You need a language

section. Do not forget English. It makes a
difference if you are native or fluent. Mention both
your written and spoken skills. Use clear terms like
beginner, intermediate and fluent. If you put
anything other than ‘beginner’, be ready for the
interviewer to test you on the spot.
15. No ‘interests’ section: interests make you

interesting (no pun intended) and are a great
conversation starter. You are a human, not a robot.
This can help you build rapport with the reader who
is (hopefully) also a human. Include 2-3 interests.

16. No ‘IT skills’ section: IT skills are getting more

important every day. Mention if you know Python,
SPSS, Tableau, Alteryx, or others (and ideally also
your capability level with these). Mention IT skills.
17. No work permit section. It’s important to show if

you have work authorization for the location you
are applying. If in doubt, companies will not invite
you. Show your work permits/ nationality.
18. Mentioning the phrase ‘References available on

request’. That is obvious, don’t waste space,
delete this.

19. Adding biographic data like address, gender,

photo, or parents’ occupation. Delete all of these.
You need a good photo for LinkedIn but not on the
resume.
20. Employer, location and time period are not on 1

line. Make sure they are all on one line. In most
cases put the title on the same line after employer.
If you had more one position with one employer, it’s
ok to put the position in the next line. This will make
the resume much easier to read. This way the
reader can quickly scan the timeline of your career.
Experience in different geographies will also pop
out this way.

Chapter Three
Content mistakes

Content mistakes
Once you have fixed your layout, it is time to improve

the content.
Here are 15 common content mistakes:
21. Using nouns when describing your experience

and education. Use action verbs instead. Action
verbs (e.g., led, transformed, managed, sold) are
better than nouns. Use only past tense, never
present tense. Use strong action verbs (e.g., drove
instead of helped). Don’t bend the truth: if you were
an intern, you probably assisted and didn’t lead the
project. But you can still try to use better sounding
action verbs.

Content mistakes
22. Not customized. You need to customize every

resume to the job you are applying for.
23. Too many acronyms and abbreviations. Never

assume the reader knows an acronym. Always err
on the side of caution. Even in science papers the
overuse of acronyms is considered a problem now.
Get rid of all internal acronyms. Use industry
acronyms sparingly.

Content mistakes
24. Not enough project outcomes/ impact/ results.

Include more numbers. This is not about
confidential data but rather showing the impact of
your work. Too often the resume only includes
activities, but not results. If you are managing a
P&L, state the revenue. Include outcomes/ results.

Content mistakes
25. No information on your employers. There are

millions of companies in the world, how can you
assume that the reader knows all of them? Mention
company background and a ranking. E.g., Fortune
500 ranking or from an industry publication. Even if
it is an organization that the reader has heard of,
like HSBC, where in this giant corporation were
you? Which part of the bank were you in? Which
geography were you covering? Were you in
Consumer Banking, Corporate Banking,
Transaction Banking…? You can also consider
including a hyperlink to their website (make sure it
works, see last tip). But do NOT include their logo.

Content mistakes
26. Not mentioning the exact size of the team

reporting to you, and not mentioning your
reporting line. It makes a difference if you are
managing a team of 2 or 20. Are you reporting to
the CFO? This is important. Mention the size of
your team and your own reporting line(s)!
27. Job title missing or misleading. You write AVP

but you were in fact a Senior Manager (which
would be equivalent to AVP in most other firms). Do
NOT change your title, write ‘Senior Manager (AVP
equivalent)’ instead. Always include your title.

Content mistakes
28. Not explicitly mentioning your promotions. No,

you were not at that company for six years as a
Director. You probably joined as an Analyst or
Associate, then got promoted. Spell out your
promotions. Show your progression and mention
the dates when you were promoted. This is very
impressive.
29. Location missing or misleading. In 99% of

cases, only mention your main location. Do not
write India/ USA when you were based in India but
only travelled to the US for two weeks per year or
were just virtually staffed. Highlight the international
nature of your work separately. Do not confuse the
reader.

Content mistakes
30. Education start date is missing or misleading.

How is the reader supposed to know if you did a
one, two, three or four-year program? If you did a
part-time degree, spell that out. Otherwise, the
reader will be confused as education will overlap
with work experience. Include the start month for
each education bullet point.
31. Currencies not mentioned. You saved 30 million.

Which currency? Do not just write $. Use the
proper currency code. E.g., USD, EUR.
32. Using ‘We’ instead of ‘I’. As a reader, I want to

know what YOU did. When talking about a project,
give some brief context. But then focus on what
workstream YOU worked on. Use I (not he/she).

Content mistakes
33. Typos and grammatical errors: these will

instantly disqualify you. After all these edits, use
your editor’s proofread function to find typos and
grammatical issues. However, be careful as it is
often accidentally deactivated for part of a
document. In addition, you always need to
proofread yourself to catch ‘false friends’ and other
errors. Edit on the next day. This way you can edit
with a fresh eye. Eliminate all typos and
grammatical errors.
34. Links are not working. Always test if links work

before you send the resume out. If you want to
send your resume as a pdf in Microsoft 365, use
‘save as’. Do NOT use the ‘print as pdf’ option as
your links won’t be clickable.

Content mistakes
35. Reason for leaving is missing. Everyone wants

to know why you left your previous role and why
you want to leave your current role. Best to put it on
the resume to save time. It can be stressful to
come up with the perfect explanation during the
interview. If you put it in writing, the phrasing will be
perfect. Include your reason for leaving for each
role. This is powerful and unique.
After you’ve fixed all these issues, your resume

will be a powerful tool in your job search.
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Unsure if your resume template is good enough?
Unsure how to implement my suggestions?
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find anywhere.
This is the template we use for the candidates in our retained

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For the first time ever, we are making the template available
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35 resume mistakes

You are making &

All rights reserved: alexberghofen.com

1 Why is a good resume important?

2 Layout/ formatting mistakes

All rights reserved: alexberghofen.com

All rights reserved: alexberghofen.com

I had assumed it was common knowledge what makes a good

I’ve reviewed over 10,000 resumes.

I’m on a mission to fight bad resume advice.

As I can’t talk to everyone, I decided to write this ebook.

All rights reserved: alexberghofen.com

All rights reserved: alexberghofen.com

Because a resume represents you. It’s the first impression

A good resume will save time during the interviews. A

All rights reserved: alexberghofen.com

Interviews have 3 goals for the candidate:

Build rapport with the interviewer

Get more insights into the position & requirements

Use these insights to show why you are THE candidate

All rights reserved: alexberghofen.com

A good resume saves time.

If your resume is unclear, you will answer the same

All rights reserved: alexberghofen.com

A resume that is visually appealing will

If the resume looks organized, readers will think you

If your resume looks messy/ crowded, what will the

All rights reserved: alexberghofen.com

Your resume needs to stand by itself.

Even headhunters do not get to talk to every person

Interviewers rarely brief the next interviewer

You need to fix two areas:

All rights reserved: alexberghofen.com

All rights reserved: alexberghofen.com

Think resume layout/ formatting doesn’t matter?

Try it out: format your resume with an unusual font like

Or change the font size to 6 or 16.

Do you see it now?

Who created the resume template you are using?

Someone who has a lot of recruiting experience?

If not, why not?

Get a resume template that was designed by a recruiter

All rights reserved: alexberghofen.com

1. Font size too small: minimum should be 9 or 10.

2. A weird font. Stick with common fonts that display

3. Too long or too short: two pages with a clear

All rights reserved: alexberghofen.com

4. Not enough white space: white space is easy on

5. Too much continuous text: use bullet points

6. Too many boxes/ frames/ lines. There should be

All rights reserved: alexberghofen.com

7. Excessive use of bold, underlining, italic. Some

8. YYYY date format is terrible: e.g., a job from

9. No link to your LinkedIn profile. Make it easy for

All rights reserved: alexberghofen.com

10. Unprofessional or confusing email address:

All rights reserved: alexberghofen.com

11. Family name not CAPITALIZED. This is the global