Things That Make Resume Look Unprofessional

Work experience is important, without the doubt, it speaks for itself and represents the perfect professional image. Obviously, it should align with the target job ad, the list of the desired skills and background. You can be sure, that you are a perfect match, but the employers don't know about it yet. And they are unlikely to find out if your resume doesn't help you in the long run. 

As you may see from the unprofessional resume examples (it can be easily found on the Internet), style matters as well as content. Statements about your significance, smartness, and dedication are half of the work. A good resume is always a self-marketing tool, which needs to be focused. Here you'll find a few little, the most widespread tweaks that make all the difference.

1. Too Bright Formatting

Admit it, you're not a kid or teenager anymore and a ridiculous formatting is better to be avoided. There is even a golden rule in the industry. If pretentious fonts or colors are the first things employers see, there is something wrong with a document. The focus should be on the words only, their styling has to dissolve and fade; only the content is important. One sure thing: color in a resume is an unprofessional choice and no curly fonts or images are wanted. It is a common advice to limit yourself to the four fonts in overall.


2. Weird Names of E-mail Accounts

Strange e-mail name is one of the best ways of sending a wrong message to the hiring manager. If you want the employer to take you seriously, everything in the resume and cover letter should be perfectly polished. The recruiting managers always consider these as the bad signals.

Besides, e-mail accounts are usually free. There is nothing that can stop you from the creating your own or the new one if needed. It is a bad idea to share an account with the family. The comic names like "cheeselover@gmail.com" or "burgersaremypassion@domain.com" look absolutely unprofessional. Offensive or frivolous names are also a total turn-off. You'd probably think that it is absurd to use such domain names. Still, it can be surprising, how many people are making this mistake. And what is really important, that the applicants aren't dull or ignorant. They just don't think it matters.

3. Pictures Aren't You Friends

Most of the people wonder about the many things resume-related. Is it unprofessional to include pictures in a resume? The answer: it is superfluous in most cases. First of all, it leaves almost no chances to get through the applications tracking system. Besides, the hiring managers can even dismiss applications because of this element at once. Any possible accusation in any kind of the discrimination should be withdrawn. Thus, it is better not to attach any photo. It can even subconsciously influence the manager's decision. And we are talking here neither about the bikini photos nor about the party shots. They are no questions asked on this matter.


4. Proofreading Is Above Everything Else

It can be extremely frustrating to write a great resume and waste all good impressions because of the numerous typos and spelling errors. It is amazing, how many people make the same mistake all over again. Spell checking apps are the saviors as they can spot a lot of errors. There are such types of misspelling when a word is grammatically right but wrong according to the context. A real person will notice it with the best probabilities. It might be helpful is someone close to you will edit your document before you sent it to the prospective hirer.

Have you ever done any of these mistakes? Personally, I’m always afraid of grammar mistakes as I’m used to type so quickly and sometimes I do not notice my own mistakes, which is why I’m always asking my husband to edit my writing.