The 7 Deadly Resume Sins
That Get You Rejected

I used to recruit for Google. Now I write resumes for software engineers.

Based on my experience, here are the 7 deadly resume sins that get you rejected.

Fix these and your resume instantly becomes easier to screen, easier to trust, and harder to ignore.

Yes, everyone says you should.

Recruiters do not care about length. They care about relevance.

What they do not want is fluff. What they do want is detail when it comes to relevant information.

One page resumes rarely give enough space to go deep into technical detail.

• Focus on content quality
• Take as much space as needed

I know you are trying to stand out 😉

Recruiters hate original layouts because it makes their job harder.

They have to review hundreds of resumes, so they skim to find key information within seconds.

If yours is different, they cannot scan it fast enough and they click next.

• Use a simple, predictable template
• Stand out based on your content

You might think your experience is too short to be summarized.

That is not what Profile Summaries are for.

Recruiters usually review resumes in batches to apply a first filter, before reading a selected few in more detail.

The Profile Summary makes that first review easy. It does their job for them. As a result, your resume converts better.

• Add a Profile Summary regardless of seniority

The lowest hanging fruit. Almost none of the resumes I screen include soft skills.

When I worked with hiring managers at Google and Groupon, they obsessed over those.

They can teach you technical skills. They cannot teach you critical thinking, collaboration, or communication.

If you do not believe it, look at hiring processes at Google, Meta, and Amazon and compare how many interviews evaluate soft skills vs core skills.

• Write about soft skills and immediately stand out

You might think your numbers are not impressive enough to list.

Recruiters do not care about the number. They want to know you measure impact.

Not everything is quantifiable. In that case, use qualitative measurements such as positive feedback from senior management.

• Add qualitative or quantitative measurements to each bullet point

This is the difference between a decent resume and a great one.

Those who are called for interviews are those who send performance signals.

That is done by explaining how you reached the outcomes you describe.

Talk about tools, techniques, strategies, frameworks, methodologies, processes, and actions taken.

Dive deep into technical details and do not worry about being over specific.

• Explain the how, not just the what

There is a ton of misinformation about ATS compliance, mostly to sell you tools.

The truth is simpler. It comes down to whether ATS can parse your text and preserve structure.

Tables and pictures cause parsing issues.

Check it right now: copy paste your PDF content to a new document. If content, order, and structure are preserved, you are ok.

• Use a text based editor (not Canva)
• Do not add pictures or tables

That is it

Fix these 7 mistakes and your resume becomes easier to screen, easier to trust, and more likely to convert.

If you want to level up the rest of your resume, I suggest reading my guide on how to write amazing bullet points.