Seven resume mistakes recruiters notice in five seconds

Recruiters average seconds per resume on the first pass. These are the defects that surface in those seconds, most of them mechanical, all of them fixable tonight.

1. Spelling errors in the first two lines

“Proffesional” in a title is a rejection in one word. Run a real spell check, and remember standard checkers skip ALL-CAPS headings, where typos love to hide.

2. Broken hyphenation from copy-paste

Text imported from an old PDF often carries line-wrap artifacts: “Target- driven”, with a stray space after the hyphen. Both words pass spell check; the sentence still reads broken. Grammar-level checking or a careful read catches it.

3. Keyword-stuffed skill lists

Forty skills, half of them generic words like “get” and “growth” pasted from a job ad, weaken the eight that matter. Every skill should survive the question: would I defend this in an interview?

4. Bullets without numbers

“Responsible for sales” says nothing. “Signed 20+ venue partners in year one” wins interviews. If a bullet has no number, ask it why.

5. Inconsistent dates and formats

“Jul 2025 – Present” in one entry and “2023-current” in another reads as carelessness. Pick one format; a good template enforces it for you.

6. The wrong file

“resume_final_v3_ACTUAL.docx” as a filename, or a Word file with tracked changes still on. Export a clean PDF named Firstname-Lastname-Resume.pdf.

7. Hidden text tricks

White-text keywords are visible the moment an ATS converts your PDF, the recruiter reads your keyword dump verbatim. There is no version of this that helps you.