Resume mistakes killing your job chances? Ex-Google recruiter shares 4 red flags & fixes

A former Google recruiter shared major 'red flags' in a candidate's resume and shared what they can do instead in a CNBC report.

Farah Sharghi, an HR and technical recruiter who has previously worked with major firms such as Google, TikTok, Uber, and The New York Times, regularly posts on social media about job hunting, interview prep, and salary negotiations.

She said the biggest resume mistake she has seen during her career is candidates writing for a person who already knows them—themselves.

Sharghi noted that this one mistake is "completely invisible" to job seekers, but it can make their accomplishments harder to understand and their impact easier to overlook.

Here's what she tells all her clients: “Cover your name at the top of the page. If you read your resume and it seems like it could be any other candidate’s, you’re in trouble. It means the value of your work will not translate to the person who is deciding your future,” she told CNBC.

She also listed four major red flags in resumes and how they can be fixed:

Add context

The expert noted a common pattern in resumes — candidates wrote what only they knew could mean. For example: “Conducted financial analysis on operating spending and budget trends to support strategic planning and decision-making.”

To the recruiter, as an outsider, this generic line means almost nothing.

Farah Sharghi's fix: Add a line of context before bullets to briefly explain what the organisation does and what the candidate's role was in it. “Provide some key context to give a stranger a way in.”

Explain the metrics

Numbers with no context are as unhelpful as no number at all. For example, “$630,000 in Q2” means nothing without a reference. “Remember that your accomplishment is the figure plus what it represents.”

Farah Sharghi's fix: A number is only meaningful when the recruiter knows what it measures and why it matters.

Avoid insider shorthand

Candidates must avoid jargon and shorthand used in their company because, to anyone outside the team, they mean nothing. This includes internal tool names, project codenames, and company-specific acronyms.

Farah Sharghi's fix: Remove anything on your resume that requires insider knowledge to understand. Efficiently describe what the tool or project actually was in plain terms, “so that someone at a different company, or even better, in a different industry can understand it”.

Cut the adjective ‘skill’

Claims like “Excellent communication. Team player. Hard-working. Detail-oriented” carry no weight because they can't be verified and don’t say anything specific about the candidate.

Skills are things a candidate has actually done and can demonstrate, and personality traits belong in an interview.

Farah Sharghi's fix: If you can’t prove a skill with a specific example, it’s an adjective. Cut it.