How to Critique a Resume with Examples (2025 Tips)

The Five Most Common Resume Criticisms

Creating a resume from scratch is challenging. Luckily, you can use templates as a guide to format your resume content creatively. However, using a template doesn’t guarantee a perfect resume—there’s still room for error. Let’s discuss the five most common resume criticisms.

1. Poor choice of font, design, and formatting
2. Misspelled words and grammatical errors
3. Irrelevant job description
4. Forgetting relevant experience that is not related to the job
5. Too much or not enough information

Poor choice of font, design, and formatting
A good first impression is very important, even with your resume. So if your resume looks busy and messy at first glance, that’s usually not a good sign. Use modern fonts and designs to make it visually appealing, and leave enough white space to keep it readable. Additionally, aim for a resume that is about one page long, concise, and formatted properly. Using bullet points and short phrases throughout helps make it visible and easy to read for the recruiter or hiring manager.

Misspelled words and grammatical errors
Misspelled words and grammatical errors are easy to spot on your resume. It is very important to eliminate this type of error. After all, if you let these simple mistakes slip by, it may send the message to employers that you lack attention to detail in your work.

Irrelevant job description
Another criticism you may encounter if someone reviews your resume is an irrelevant job description. It’s important to focus your resume on the skills and experience that best qualify you for the job.

Forgetting relevant experience that is not related to the job
It’s important for job seekers to include relevant, non-job-related experience on their resume. For example, combine volunteer hours, certification training, and internships you’ve completed if they demonstrate specific skills or experience that could contribute to your next job.

Too much or not enough information
Often, when writing a resume, less is more. After all, the average recruiter spends about six to seven seconds looking at your resume. Keeping it short and concise will allow recruiters to assess the most important information quickly. For example, you don’t need to include marital status, citizenship, or other personal information. On the other hand, you don’t want to hand over a blank piece of paper. Write short, thorough points with enough action words to accurately display your work history and experience. Using bullet points for your skills section is a good way to make your resume easy to read. For example, you can list your resume skills using action verbs in bullet points, such as:

• Interpersonal skills
• Critical thinking skills
• Customer service skills
• Cooperation
• Solution to problem
• Written communication skills
• Management