Ex-Amazon recruiter reveals this major mistake job seekers make in resumes

Former Amazon recruiter Lindsay Mustain said that there is one mistake that job seekers make again and again in their resumes. Speaking to CNBC Make It, she said that the flaw is “Miss America answers”- remarks made at beauty pageants. The CEO of career coaching company Talent Paradigm said that she has spent at least two decades in talent acquisition and has looked at “literally a million” resumes but generic statements in the resume are a very big mistake which she sees all the time.

Lindsay Mustain said that this is happening from the junior level “all the way up to the C-suite”. This is preventing job seekers from standing out in the list. She said, “I had stakeholder meetings with people” is an example of a Miss America answer. They’re like a glorified job description… adding that, you just look like somebody who’s filling a seat.”

What you can do to correct this mistake?

The former Amazon recruiter said that this mistake can easily be corrected if job seekers quantify and list their accomplishments in place of descriptions of their role and experience.

“If somebody is fixing tickets on a help desk,” she said, adding, “I’ve solved 30 customers’ problems a day” is a good metric to start with. Candidates can take it even further, though, and think about what they were able to accomplish in a year. Thirty problems a day, 20 days a month, 12 months per year is 7,200 problems solved altogether.”

The “more metrics and analytics you can add to your resume, the more impressive,” she said.

Recruiters only have a few seconds to look at your resume as they are likely “handling somewhere between 15 to 25” job openings at once, she said, continuing, “The average applicants per job is 250, which means they’re dealing with tens of thousands of applicants.”

Quantifying the accomplishments makes the recruiters’ eyes go straight to the numbers when they are reviewing. They’ll know how much value you added to your previous employers immediately, Mustain told CNBC Make It.