I haven't read nearly as many resumes as Mr Bock (the SVP of HR for Google), but I've read quite a few, and, yeah, this list sounds right:
1. Typos (spelling, grammar, punctuation)
2. Length (TL;DR)
3. Formatting (clarity, cross-platform)
4. Confidential Information (if your boss would object, don't)
5. Lies (spin is one thing, factual lies are another)
Resumes are simultaneously critical and worthless. As Bock puts it, "the sole purpose of a resume is to get you an interview. That's it. It's not to convince a hiring manager to say 'yes' to you (that's what the interview is for) or to tell your life's story (that's what a patient spouse is for). Your resume is a tool that gets you to that first interview."
HR / Recruiters / Hiring Managers use resumes as a gatekeeping function to see whom to actually spend real time with in an interview, and often have far more resumes than they need for that process. Thus, rightly or wrongly, consciously or unconsciously, the errors above (particularly 1-3) can be simple ways to do a first winnowing on that stack.
The Biggest Mistakes I See on Resumes, and How to Correct Them | Laszlo Bock | LinkedIn
Pomona College, Class of 94. ‘Nuff said.
How do you make a cross-platform resume except in plain text, granted that the office suite of your choice does not guarantee proper presentation in the other office suite of their choice?
+Patrick Bick Keep the formatting as simple as you can, and use something like PDF for it, I'd say.