Bad Resume Examples: The 11 Worst Resumes of 2026

1. “Surver” resume

Bad spelling and grammar are one of the quickest ways to get your resume thrown away.

If you submit a resume like the one above, employers will assume that you don’t care enough about the job to proofread your work or even run it through a spell-checker.

If you can’t be bothered to spellcheck your own resume, who would trust you to handle the responsibilities of a full-time job?

To avoid this classic resume mistake, read through your resume once or twice, or even get another person to check it as well.

2. Clipart resume

Unnecessary and distracting graphics like the ones in this example are an easy way to make your resume look bizarre and unprofessional.

Flashy graphics distract from your resume’s goal of clearly communicating your skills and accomplishments.

Additionally, graphics can become a serious problem when applying to companies that use ATS (applicant tracking system) software to automatically scan through job applications.

If a company’s ATS can’t process the graphics on your resume, then hiring managers will miss key information.

Remove all graphics so that your resume is clean, professional, and easy to read.

3. Passive recipient resume

At first glance, this resume looks okay, but in the experience section the candidate only lists passive responsibilities rather than actual achievements. This is a clear example of how not to talk about your qualifications.

Passive terms like “responsible for” or “tasked with” are vague and don’t provide details about your actual accomplishments or qualifications.

Instead, describe your specific experience by using action verbs to highlight what you actually accomplished in your previous position.

Here’s an example of how you should and shouldn’t describe the experience on your resume:

4. Comic sans resume

This candidate’s professional experience seems impressive if it weren’t written in such a distracting font.

Unprofessional and hard to read fonts like the one used in this bad resume example are guaranteed to give any hiring manager the ick.

Nonstandard fonts are also difficult for ATS software to process, and make it even more likely that your resume will get rejected.

For your reference, here are some fonts that you should never use on a resume:

The best fonts for your resume are easy to read and come standard on PCs and Macs. To make a better first impression, stick to any of these classic fonts:

5. Gamer resume

While it’s okay to include hobbies on your resume if they’re relevant to the job and you lack professional experience, this bad resume takes it a step too far. Unless you’re applying for a job in e-sports, information about your gaming achievements is irrelevant to your professional qualifications and should be left off your resume.

Only include information that’s applicable to the job you’re applying for. Including anecdotes about your hobbies or personal interests is a waste of space and unprofessional.

Our Career Expert breaks it down:

@resumegenius The WORST Resume I’ve ever seen! Pt. 1 #resumetips #resumetips2022 #badresume #resumeadvice #careertips ♬ Monkeys Spinning Monkeys – Kevin MacLeod & Kevin The Monkey

6. Unabridged autobiography resume

This resume is just too long, and Recruiters don’t have unlimited time to read each resume.

If your resume is over 2 pages long and includes everything you’ve ever done, your most important qualifications will get overlooked.

You should tailor your resume to the job you’re applying for by including only your most relevant experience.

Making your resume too long makes it seem like you don’t have a clear understanding of the role you’re applying for.

7. Buzzword-heavy resume

“Go-getter,” “hungry for success,” “self-starter” — this bad resume is a classic example of someone using too many buzzwords on their resume.

While these phrases sound impressive, they actually communicate very little about the candidate’s experience and skills. Worse, many employers think they come off as pretentious.

8. Badly formatted resume

This candidate’s experience looks pretty good. Unfortunately, the rest of their resume doesn’t.

The resume is a mess, with inconsistent spacing, misaligned icons, random font sizes. Nearly every part of their resume formatting has issues.

A sloppily formatted resume like this can immediately ruin your chances of getting an interview.

9. Average YouTube polyglot resume

This would-be polyglot heavily advertises their language abilities on their resume, even using their career objective to show off their skills.

The only problem is that they’ve made mistakes in every sentence.

Any native German, Spanish, or Swedish speaking hiring manager would know that the correct way to phrase what the candidate is trying to say is “Ich spreche Deutsch, hablo español con fluidez, och pratar också jättebra svenska”.

If you claim to be fluent in a language, make sure you know how to form grammatically correct sentences. Lying on your resume could end up not just costing you the job, but also getting you blacklisted from ta company altogether.

10. Sharing too much resume

The most glaring mistake this candidate makes in their resume is providing too much irrelevant personal information.

You should avoid sharing too many personal details on your resume because it comes across as unprofessional. Instead, focus on the skills and experience that will help you with the daily job responsibilities.

Your resume also definitely shouldn’t include sensitive information such as your nationality, date of birth, or marital status because this information can put you at risk of employment discrimination.

11. Dramatic resume

It’s tempting to upgrade your past experience by using impressive language, but this resume takes it too far.

It’s nearly impossible to tell what their job actually is (they work at a hamburger restaurant). Using overly embellished language like this comes across as pretentious and makes it harder to understand what your qualifications are, which can hurt your chances of landing a job.

Instead, use professional and clear language on your resume. The goal is to make it as easy as possible for employers to understand what you accomplished and how.

The difference between a good and a bad resume

You know you’ve written a good resume if it helps land you a job. Beyond that, though, there are certain qualities that the best resumes share in common:

On the other hand, these are signs of a bad resume:

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