Lindsay Mustain has seen her share of resumes — "literally a million" in her more than decade-long career, she says. The former Amazon and Comcast recruiter is currently the CEO of career coaching company Talent Paradigm, which also offers resume writing services.
Mustain's seen all sorts of mistakes from jobseekers. The most common is writing a list of general tasks under a job title, such as "attended meetings with stakeholders." When you list your job experience, you want to give specific examples of where you succeeded, like giving 50 presentations to C-suite execs each month. "You need to talk about what you accomplished," she says.
But some resumes have really taken her by surprise. "Typically, the more junior the role the more colorful" the resume can be, she says. Here are three of the biggest resume mistakes she's seen and why you should avoid them.
'They chose their driver's license photo'
In 2011, Mustain was working at health insurance company Premera Blue Cross looking to fill a member services representative role, or "somebody who works with contracts," she says.
At the top corner of their resume, one of the candidates decided to include their picture. To begin with, "unless you're a model or a real estate agent, I recommend you not put a photo on your resume," she says. The majority of jobs simply don't need to see what you look like.
But it wasn't just any photo the candidate decided to use: "They chose their driver's license photo," she says, "which, I don't think anybody looks good in their driver's license photo."
Ultimately, including a photo in your resume is "a questionable decision," she says. "And you just disqualified yourself before you even had a chance."
They put 'a rose sticker' on it
Around the same time, Mustain was also hiring for a call center representative role at the same company. One resume came in with a couple of stickers.
"I remember it was the name and then right on either side, there was a little silver square with" with a flower on it. "I think I have a picture of it somewhere," she adds, "because I just couldn't believe that you would freshly print out your resume, you're like, 'you know what this is really missing? A rose sticker.'"
Resumes are meant to be straightforward, professional accounts of your career. Adding flare to them like stickers will make it hard to take you seriously as a candidate, say Mustain.
They used 'Elle Woods scented, colored paper'
Early on in her career, hiring for another entry-level role, Mustain had a candidate use "Elle Woods scented, colored paper," she says, referencing the character from "Legally Blonde."
The paper had clouds on it and held the scent of perfume. There's something to be said for printing your resume on high quality paper that elevates the experience of handling it, Mustain says. "But not that paper."
Like the stickers, using this kind of material can come off as unprofessional. It's your career accomplishments that should stand out, not the doodles or scent of the paper you're using. "I wish that you could have a pink, glittery, sparkly resume and that would work," she says, "but it just does not."
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.
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