Former Google Recruiter Says You Have 'Zero Chance' Of Getting Hired If You Do This On Your Resume

If you want to get one up on the competition when applying for a new position, you should be as concise as possible on your resume.

What To Know Before You Apply: Recruiters often read through countless resumes, screening for the best potential candidates from a faceless pool of applicants. 

According to a CNBC report, citing former Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL recruiter Nolan Church, putting long blocks of text in a resume is likely to get you thrown out of contention right away.

"The No. 1 thing I don't want to see on a resume is probably text bricks ... endless streams of text that have a lot of words but not a lot of content," Nolan said. 

Some recruiters may let it slide, but for Nolan, all consideration ends there. If you put large text blocks on your resume, "there's zero chance you're going to move forward," he said. 

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How To Avoid The Critical Error: One of the most common places applicants tend to serve up a word soup is in the description section for previous roles. 

When listing your prior experience, you should try to be as concise as possible. Use one-line bullets and avoid writing lengthy descriptions, he suggested.

It's not just that it makes the life of a recruiter more difficult, it also says a lot about your communication skills, Church said. 

"If you can't succinctly describe what you've been doing in your career, there's just no way you're going to be able to succinctly write in the workplace," he said. 

Nolan recommended using tools like ChatGPT or Grammarly to help clean up job descriptions, check for spelling and punctuation errors, and assist in only including the necessary information. 

You can also reach out to others for help. He believes all applicants should have five to 10 people review their resumes before submitting them. You should also think about how easy or difficult it would be for you to review the application if the tables were turned. 

"My advice would be to optimize a resume for 10-second viewership," Nolan said.

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This story is part of a new series of features on the subject of success, Benzinga Inspire.

Some elements of this story were previously reported by Benzinga and it has been updated.

Photo:  Steve DiMatteo from Pixabay.