What is a Good Resume?
A good resume means a professional resume. It contains relevant information like personal details of the applicant, a summary or an objective statement, work history, academic details, skills, and additional details.
However, a good resume is not just limited to what is mentioned above. There's a lot more to it.
Features of a Good Resume
A good resume has optimized resume sections that help the resume pass the applicant tracking system making the entire resume scannable and readable for hiring managers. To make things better we have compiled a list of features of a good resume.
- Personal details and contact information are furnished properly in the header section.
- The header segment also contains an absolute job title aka present designation.
- A good resume header avoids including an unprofessional email address. It's amateur.
- It has an adaptable summary statement to formally introduce the applicant.
- The work experience is mentioned in a reverse chronological format using bullet points.
- Moreover, it also contains success stories, achievements, and impressive job responsibilities that excelled the applicant's skills in a specific way.
- Accomplished qualifications in the education section will avoid making the recruiter skip your resume.
- Skills are intelligently listed in an easy way so that a recruiter can go through them and make a wise decision.
- Additional details in a good resume contain impressive language lists, certificates, and other relevant skills plus qualifications.
Now that we know the features of a good resume let's compare these features individually in a bad resume.
Mistakes in the Header Section that makes in a Bad Resume
A slight error or a wrong detail in the header section can create bad resume examples for a recruiter and can also cost you a critical job opportunity.
Instead of explaining wrong contact details that make a bad resume let's go through an example.
INCORRECT3725 Corning Drive
Westland, MI 48185
+1 248-379-9222
Birth date April 26, 1982
Age 41 years old
jesus_1982_dude41@jourrapide.comLas Vegas Yard Management
Health care interpreter
There's no point in asking why the details in the above example make a bad resume. First of all, too much information about a candidate is not required because just contact details would have been enough with a name.
The negative side of writing too much information is the resume may exceed 2-3 page and that's not the standard practice. Second, unprofessional email address. For instance, jesus_1982_dude41@jourrapide.com instead of simply writing jesuslazo@gmail.com.
These mistakes in professional resumes while making a job application won't serve the purpose but contradictorily it will backfire. Hence, avoid making them in the first place.
Long Paragraphs, in Summary, Creates a Bad Resume
A summary in professional resumes stick to the given standards of maintaining two to three sentences. The statement is a balanced mixture of professional skills, impressive achievements, qualifications, position, responsibilities in past jobs, creative examples, and so on.
In other words, long paragraphs in a statement will break your chances of getting your resume read by recruiters. Do you want that to happen? Following is a creative example of bad resumes summary with mistakes, typos, spelling errors, and whatnot. Have a good laugh!
INCORRECTIf your professional summary is like the one above then avoid making a job application at all costs because the recruiter won't even take the pain to read looking at the size of the paragraph. Read it again - who writes handsome in a resume statement?
Mistakes are bound to happen while writing a resume and they may go from bad to worse but intentionally mentioning a life story is not a mistake. Write only a specific detail and avoid making an article out of the summary in your own resume.
Grammar Errors in Resume Objective is equal to Bad Resumes
A resume objective means the candidate is not experienced and that's why the objective statement is there in the first place. Check if you have an objective in your own resume or not.
Just like a resume summary an objective statement is also a balanced mixture of professional skills, impressive achievements, qualifications, position, responsibilities in past jobs, creative examples, and so on.
An objective statement subtly introduces a candidate to the recruiter and guides him or her throughout the resume. If there are typos, curvy font, unwanted space, spelling mistakes, or irrelevant words then the applicant tracking system will not pass the resume. It will be lost for eternity.
Here's an objective statement that will not only break your chance of getting an interview call but also make the resume longer up to two pages. Have a good laugh again!
INCORRECTJust two words - Wrong and Worse.
Do you know what makes a bad resume a bad resume? No, not spelling mistakes, not even typos, and not even silly fonts. Although they all ruin a good resume in an easy way primarily there's something else that happen to be visually making a bad resume.
It's the content size and how long the resume is because recruiters will read the resume content afterward but first scan the length. If the resume is more than two pages the recruiter will simply put it away.
Grammar Mistakes in the Experience Section that Generates a Bad Resume
We come across worst resumes - not only worst resumes but a cover letter full of typos, fancy font, and spelling mistake on day to day basis. That's part of our job to guide people with the mistake that makes a resume - a bad resume.
Now how's this relevant to the experience section in a professional resume? The employment history in a bad resume is bad because it's not written the way it should be. There are many reasons why we are telling this.
First, we will see the universal template to write job experience in a resume. Thereafter, we will discuss the key takeaways of writing job experience in professional resumes. So, here's the template.
CORRECTCompany name
City, State
Job duration
- Bullet point
- Bullet point
- Bullet point
- Bullet point
Key Takeaways of Writing the Job Experience in a Resume
- Shows your experience to the recruiters and focus on details.
- Separate every statement using bullet points.
- Use the reverse chronological resume format to write work experience.
- Begin with the current job title and then the last job you attended.
- Avoid making the resume fancy by using curved font and emojis.
- Don't attempt to impress recruiters with your design skills in resumes.
- It is a job experience. not an article hence treat it likewise.
- Mention examples with facts, figures, and stats.
- Double-check for typos, spelling mistakes, grammar errors, etc.
Examples of Skills Section in Bad Resumes
- Soft skill
- Communication
- Positive attitude
- Problem-solving
- Attention to detail
- Responsible
- Time management
- Business knowledge
- Transferable skill
- Accounting
- Taxation
- Company laws
- Filing and documentation
- Computer literacy
- Administration skills
- Correspondence
Examples of Skills Section in Bad Resumes
INCORRECTOther Details in a Bad Resume
So far we have discussed many bad resume examples section-wise. Finally, we have reached the additional details section where a candidate can describe his or her capabilities using language expertise, certificates, internship history, awards, publications, and a lot more other details that are necessary.
The point of discussion here is how you must not introduce additional information in a resume. It is similar to the skill section above and you can easily relate to two examples of skill sections in bad resumes.
Examples of Additional Details in Bad Resume
- Language known - English, Spanish, and French with native, intermediate, and low-level proficiency.
- Certified Microsoft Office Associate, 2016
- Certified Excel Associate, 2016
- College Club Activities - Co-Founder and Member of Arts Club
- Membership - National Administrative Associate Group
Examples of Additional Details in Bad Resume
INCORRECTNeither of them is the correct way to depict extra information no matter how genuine the information is. It's clear examples of bad resumes.
How Bad is a Bad Resume?
Before we conclude our topic on bad resume examples here's the outline when we combine all the bad resume examples sections in one place. There's no serious purpose to do this but you will get to know how ugly it looks so that you don't repeat it.
A Bad Resume Template
INCORRECT3725 Corning Drive
Westland, MI 48185
+1 248-379-9222
Birth date April 26, 1982
Age 41 years old
jesus_1982_dude41@jourrapide.com
Las Vegas Yard Management
Health care interpreter
Summary
Graduate looking for a job offer as a career advisor in your education institute to guide students. I have a graduate degree from a university. I have undertaken serious roles in previous jobs. I also know to speak languages more than one, complete given tasks without any rest, pretty good at work, Needless to say, I will be an outstanding employee.
Experience
Job title
Company name
City, State
Job duration
- Bullet points.
- Bullet points
- Bullet points
- Bullet points
- Master's in Business Management
- Westland University
- Westland, Michigan
- Year of Graduation 2016
- GPA scored 3.0
- Major Subjects - Business Accounts and Administration
- President and Member - College Science Club
- Soft skill
- Communication
- Positive attitude
- Problem-solving
- Attention to details
- Responsible
- Time management
- Business knowledge
- Transferable skill
- Accounting
- Taxation
- Company laws
- Filing and documentation
- Computer literacy
- Administration skill
- Correspondence
- Languages known - English, Spanish, and French with native, intermediate, and low-level proficiency.
- Certified Microsoft Office Associate, 2016
- Certified Excel Associate, 2016
- College Club Activities - Co-Founder and Member of Arts Club
- Membership - National Administrative Associate Group
One of the fantastic examples of bad resumes so far!
You might have got an idea by now how painful it is for a hiring manager to read resumes made using templates just like the one above. Don't do this. Instead, use our elegant resume templates to win a job interview.
