ResumeTemplates.com Survey Finds 3 in 4 Hiring Managers Pass on Qualified Candidates With Bad Resumes

Common resume mistakes include listing job descriptions that focus on duties rather than achievements, poor formatting, lengthiness, and spelling errors

ResumeTemplates.com, the leading platform for free professional resume templates and examples, has published a recent survey report that explores how resumes impact hiring decisions among hiring managers. The report also shares insight into common resume mistakes and which job candidates are the most susceptible to these errors. Researchers gathered and analyzed responses from 780 hiring managers in the United States.

Based on the survey, 7 percent of respondents ‘always’ eliminate otherwise qualified job candidates due to poor formatting on resumes. Twenty-three percent say they do this ‘often,’ 44 percent say ‘sometimes,’ and 22 percent say ‘rarely.’ Additionally, 36 percent of hiring managers admit they ‘always’ or ‘often’ pass on candidates if crucial information cannot be quickly located on their resumes.

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“Hiring managers routinely reject qualified candidates based on their resume for two major reasons,” says ResumeTemplates’ Executive Resume Writer and Career Coach Andrew Stoner. “One, they don’t have time. Recruiters and hiring managers typically spend less than 10 seconds reviewing a resume due to high numbers of applicants and competing priorities. The second reason is it’s a screening tool. A candidate’s resume is often the first impression of their work product. If it is not properly formatted with clearly organized information, it signals that a candidate is either not competent or not focused on the specific opportunity.”

Survey results also note the most common resume mistakes that hiring managers encounter. This includes listing job descriptions that focus on job responsibilities instead of achievements, formatting them poorly, making them too long, having spelling errors, and providing incorrect contact information. When comparing job candidates by seniority, entry-level candidates are the most likely to have errors on their resumes, followed by mid-level, senior-level and executive-level candidates.

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