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Forbes
27-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
7 Resume Red Flags Hiring Managers Spot Instantly
Do you think you have a minute to impress a hiring manager? Try just 7.4 seconds. According to research from Ladders, that's all the time recruiters typically spend on an initial resume scan. In those fleeting moments, one mistake could mean the difference between a callback and the rejection pile. To help you stand out for the right reasons, I've compiled the seven most damaging resume red flags that instantly turn off hiring managers—and how to fix them. The surge in AI tools like ChatGPT has made resume creation more accessible than ever. However, hiring managers have grown increasingly adept at identifying generic, AI-generated content. A recent Resume Genius survey revealed that 53% of hiring managers have reservations about resumes using AI-generated content, with 20% seeing it as a critical problem that could prevent them from hiring you. The issue isn't using AI as a starting point - it's submitting content that sounds mechanical, lacks your personal touch, and fails to showcase what makes you uniquely valuable to employers. Leverage AI tools for initial brainstorming or creating a basic framework, but invest time in customizing your resume with specific accomplishments, measurable results, and relevant experiences that highlight your distinct value. Edit thoroughly to ensure your resume reflects your authentic voice rather than sounding like an algorithm mass-produced it. Employment gaps aren't automatically disqualifying—but unexplained gaps raise questions. When hiring managers see periods of unemployment with no context, they may assume the worst—that you were fired, couldn't find work, or weren't doing anything productive during that time. They might also worry that these gaps indicate problems adapting to industry changes or suggest you need additional training. Be transparent about employment gaps and frame them positively. If you took time off for education, family care, personal development, or freelance work, include this information on your resume. This approach demonstrates to hiring managers that you remained committed to your professional development and continued building valuable skills even during periods without traditional employment. Recruiters are immediately turned off by poor resume design. In a document meant to showcase your professional capabilities, sloppy formatting signals a lack of attention to detail and poor judgment. Common formatting red flags include: • Inconsistent fonts or font sizes • Cramped text with minimal white space • Poor alignment and inconsistent spacing • Hard-to-read font styles or colors • Resumes longer than 1-2 pages (depending on experience level) Use a clean, professional resume template with consistent formatting throughout. Stick to standard, readable fonts like Arial, Calibri, or Georgia at 10-12pt size. Ensure adequate white space and avoid tables, text boxes or overly stylized formatting to ensure your resume is ATS-friendly. Keep your resume to one to two pages unless you work in an industry that specifically requests longer documents or have extensive, relevant experience that warrants the additional space. One of the most common resume mistakes is listing job duties rather than accomplishments. Hiring managers already know the basic responsibilities associated with your job title. What they really want to see is how well you performed them. Highlighting your achievements demonstrates your actual impact and value to previous employers. Transform duty-based statements into achievement-focused bullets by including specific metrics, outcomes, and the value you brought to previous employers. For example: Instead of: "Responsible for managing social media accounts and creating content for Instagram and TikTok." Write: "Grew Instagram following from 5K to 25K in six months through targeted content strategy, resulting in a 40% increase in social media-driven sales." While job-hopping isn't the taboo it once was—especially in fast-paced industries—a pattern of short stints without clear progression can still raise eyebrows. Employers often hesitate to hire candidates with a history of job-hopping, as it suggests you might quickly leave their organization—wasting their investment in your onboarding and training. Many hiring managers interpret frequent job changes as a sign of potential commitment issues or difficulty adapting to new workplace cultures. If you have multiple short-term positions, consider grouping similar roles under one heading (e.g., "Freelance Marketing Consultant") or highlighting the strategic purpose behind each move. In your cover letter or interview, prepare to explain specifically how each position contributed to your professional development and why you're now seeking a stable, long-term opportunity. Frame your varied experience as a strength that brings diverse perspectives to your work. In a document meant to showcase your attention to detail and professionalism, spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, and typos are inexcusable. Even a single error can signal to hiring managers that you either lack basic communication skills or didn't care enough about the position to proofread your application materials. Don't rely solely on spell-check tools, which often miss contextual errors like using "their" instead of "there." After writing your resume, step away from it for a day, then return with fresh eyes. Read it aloud to catch awkward phrasing, and ask a trusted friend or colleague to review it. Consider using professional proofreading tools like Grammarly as an additional layer of protection against embarrassing mistakes. Including too much personal information on your resume looks unprofessional and exposes you to potential discrimination. Hiring managers should focus solely on your professional qualifications—not personal details that are irrelevant to your ability to perform the job. Information to avoid includes: • Age or date of birth • Marital status or family details • Religious or political affiliations • Personal social media handles • Salary history or requirements • Photographs (in most U.S. industries) • Hobbies unrelated to the position Focus your resume exclusively on professional qualifications. Include your name, professional email address, phone number, city/state, and relevant LinkedIn profile. If you want to include interests or hobbies, only mention those that demonstrate skills relevant to the position. For example, include "Volunteer coding instructor for underprivileged youth" for a software engineering role, but leave out your weekend hiking adventures unless they directly connect to the job requirements. Remember that the purpose of your resume isn't to document everything you've ever done. It's to market yourself effectively for a specific position. When you craft it with precision and purpose, you transform it from a mere list of experiences into a powerful tool that showcases your unique value. Take this moment to set yourself apart. When you invest the time to create a resume free of these red flags, you're not just applying for a job—you're positioning yourself for success.
Forbes
24-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
5 In-Demand Remote Jobs Paying $100,000+ In 2025
Remote jobs that thrive in 2025 are the ones that are most closely linked to real business impact ... More and results In 2024, the share of remote job listings continued to rise each quarter, experts at Ladders noted. But this year, overall remote job availability has experienced a significant drop. The share of high-paying roles (the ones that pay more than $100,000 a year) is down by 30%, while overall remote job availability is down by 7% according to FlexJobs' recent Remote Work Economy Index. Analysts at Ladders conclude that external factors such as tariffs and layoffs could be the likely cause of the decline, impacting job availability in general, not just for remote roles. However, even as many industries experience a general decline, there were five remote roles pointed out by FlexJobs that appear to be unaffected by the downward trend, and were in the highest demand in Q1 2025. Each of these five remote jobs pay more than $100,000 on average according to Payscale: Senior product managers are the strategic brains behind the design, development, launch and lifecycle of a company's products. These could be technical products or otherwise. In this role, you'd usually collaborate with cross-functional teams in engineering, marketing and customer success to ensure a successful rollout that exceeds user expectations and meets user needs while achieving business goals. Companies are heavily investing in senior product leadership roles to help them as they drive their business strategy forward in developing digital products and SaaS, so this is a great skill set to invest in. Average salary: $133,000 Even though mass tech layoffs are taking headlines, senior software engineers are still needed, especially now as organizations continue to roll out AI and integrate it across their tech, systems, and workflows. As a senior software engineer, you'd be leading a team of engineers, solving complex problems, designing systems, and acting as the strategic head for the development cycle. Average salary: $128,000 BDM roles are all about expanding a business's presence in different markets through strategic outreach. BDMs identify profitable relationships and nurture them into partnerships and clients. As a senior BDM, your role would entail developing the overall business development strategy, managing the sales pipeline, and mentoring/managing other BDMs. Average salary: $114,000 Account executives work in sales just like a BDM, but their focus varies. While BDMs concentrate on entering new markets and building revenue from scratch, AEs usually already have accounts to nurture relationships with and are more focused on maintaining those client accounts and closing deals. Average salary: $109,000 Last but not least, project management professionals continue to be in high demand, as initially predicted by the PMI (Project Management Institute), which noted in a report that 25 million PMs will be needed over the next few years up to 2030. The role may not sound as glamorous as engineering or client acquisition, but without project managers--the glue that holds everything together--businesses would be completely unorganized, lose profits, and fall way behind customer expectations. Skilled project leaders are needed to combine their technical skill set (project management tools like Trello and Asana) with power skills like leadership, stakeholder management, and problem-solving. Average salary: $101,000 While remote job availability is tightening this year, these roles remain resilient. Want to know why? It's because they drive business outcomes and have a direct impact on revenue and innovation. Remote jobs such as PM and BDM roles require strong team management and cross-functional ... More collaboration skills If you're looking for a remote job in 2025, ask yourself, Where can I apply my skills to make the greatest impact to a company? Instead of focusing directly on flexibility, look for ways that you can solve real business problems and upskill where needed. This will lead you into the path of six-figure remote jobs and you'll be in high demand throughout your career.
