Common Resume Mistakes – Interview with Teodor Dimokenchev

A Jobs.bg inverview with the founder of CareerPro – Teodor Dimokenchev.

Read the original interview in Bulgarian here.

What do you think about the practice of writing cover letters and resumes with the help of Large Language Models? How do recruitment experts evaluate this practice?

It doesn’t matter what tools you use — what matters is the final result. Large Language Models can be used to generate ready-made text for a cover letter. However, an experienced reader will immediately notice that the text was not written by a human. It is important to edit such texts and add specific details related to the individual job posting you are applying for. This personalization makes a much better impression than a completely generic text that sounds “robotic” and disengaged.

A well-written resume contains so much information that is specific to each person that you inevitably have to write it into the file yourself anyway. You would need to provide the same information to the language model for it to return a sufficiently good result. This largely defeats the purpose of using it to write a resume. We can use it as a supporting tool — for example, when describing job responsibilities, which we can then edit ourselves. But in my opinion, its usefulness is quite limited.

What should candidates focus on — the standard Europass format or an individual/custom format?

The standard European format (Europass) is one of the worst things that has happened to the labor market. It is extremely inconvenient both for the writer and for the reader, with far too much empty space and fragmented information. There are many free templates available on the internet and websites where you can create a resume that looks far better than the European format.

Whichever format you use, follow these principles:

• Simple design and clear structure;
• Start with the most important contact information;
• Describe your experience in reverse chronological order, starting with the most recent;
• Pay special attention to your achievements in each position;
• At the end, list your education in reverse chronological order;
• Keep it to one page in length. Two pages in very rare cases.

For 95% of people, this is more than enough, and recruiters will thank you for not making them wonder where to look when they open your resume.

How would you recommend addressing the online correspondence that accompanies sending a resume and cover letter?

Always be brief and professional in your correspondence. Nobody has time to read novels, and they rarely add real value. If you need to write something more detailed, use the BLUF technique — Bottom Line Up Front. This means starting with the most essential information in 1–2 sentences, and only then providing additional explanations. This is also a good technique for writing emails in general. Most people are interested in what directly concerns them in the email, not so much in the details.

Is there any information that candidates often fail to include or underestimate, but which is actually very important to HR professionals?

The most important thing is to describe your experience well. This is also where people fail most often. To make a better impression, you should not just list what you were responsible for, but also what exactly you achieved and how. Responsibilities and achievements are two separate parts of the description for each position. Show how you successfully fulfilled your duties.

For example:

• “Reached 97% of the quality standard in the first two months of the position.”
• “Reduced costs by 12% by eliminating unnecessary steps in the workflow.”
• “Increased sales by 8% through regular staff training.”

Many people find it difficult to come up with achievements. Think about all the “normal” work you do well every day and describe it as an achievement. For example, if you answer client inquiries by email, you can write: “Achieved 100% timely responses to all customer inquiries received via email.”

What are the most common mistakes when writing a resume?

A resume is a leaflet that sells you. If the brochure does well, you will be invited to an interview, where there will be time for longer presentations and explanations. Recruiters look at hundreds of resumes a day, and you do yourself a disservice if you don’t make your resume flawless.

In spite of the above, many resumes are full of spelling and grammatical errors, overly large fonts, photos from beaches and nightclubs, and non-working phone numbers. These problems occur more often than people realize. Another common issue is including far too much irrelevant information or repeating the same thing in multiple places. For example, including languages you studied up to level A1 15 years ago, a driver’s license category for a job that doesn’t require driving, filler “skills” such as “critical thinking,” “writing,” and “reading,” as well as hobbies and personal interests that have nothing to do with the job.

If I’m looking for a programmer, I don’t care that you are a certified scuba diver. We can talk about that at the interview, but in the resume it only distracts from the important things.

Which mistakes make the biggest impression on HR professionals?

Things like obvious illiteracy, unprofessionalism, and lies that come out during the interview. You need to understand that there is no single standard among HR professionals and hiring managers. People apply with the expectation that all resumes are reviewed equally, that HR people are robots who think according to one standard, or that they are not influenced by mood or corporate bureaucracy.

Very few hiring managers and recruiters have a system for evaluating candidates. Most rely on gut feeling, the mood they are in at the moment of reading, and their personal biases. Almost no HR or hiring manager will admit this, but anyone who has worked with many managers and HR professionals will reach the same conclusion.

For example, I know recruiters who do not even consider resumes without a photo. To me, this is extremely unprofessional, but for some people it is a fact. That’s why, when two equally qualified candidates are compared, things often come down to whose resume ends up with what kind of hiring person. This is simply human nature, and there’s no point in being angry at the facts. Job hunting is a marathon in which you receive negative responses most of the time.

What approaches do you recommend to minimize mistakes?

Have a system that you follow. It always helps to create a checklist and stick to it. For example:

• The entire text should be in one font and the same font size;
• All data should be accurate — email, phone, names of past positions and employers, specific terms, dates;
• No spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors — check the next day after you’ve written it.
• Give the resume to several close people to check for errors;
• Use a spell checker and text-to-speech tools to “hear” how the text sounds.

You can create your own checklist that fits your needs.

If a mistake was made in the resume and the HR refers to it during the interview, what would be the correct approach from the job candidate’s side?

The first rule is never to lie in your resume. The second rule is to always have prepared answers. For example, if you have a two-year gap in your work history, it is normal for interviewers to be curious and ask about it. Do not react defensively, because that only worsens the impression you leave. Having a short and adequate answer is often more important than the specific details of the answer itself, because the interviewer’s concern here is whether you are lying or hiding something that would signal you might be a problematic employee.

With a well-thought-out and confident answer, you will dispel these doubts. Answer simply and honestly, the way you would answer a friend — “I was on maternity leave,” “I was finishing my education,” “I took a creative break to focus on X,” “I was laid off.”

If you’ve made a technical mistake (for example, you got a year wrong), simply admit it and correct yourself.

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