Anything For You All: INSTANT MBA: A woman who has reviewed more than 40,000 résumés explains the single most annoying mistake she sees

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June 12, 2017

When it comes to résumés, there's a lot that can go wrong.

Just ask Tina Nicolai — she's read 40,000 résumés since launching Résumé Writers' Ink in 2010.

She recently broke down some of the biggest résumé annoyances for Business Insider, from typos to buzzwords.

However, which irritating slip-up is the worst of all?

Nicolai says that starting a bullet with the worlds "responsible for" is her biggest pet peeve.

"When lines start with 'responsible for' and are repeated, it sends a message that the candidate didn't invest time in preparing for a position," she told Business Insider in an email. "It is often used when candidates don't know how to write an appropriate résumé or they also don't really know what they achieved. Sally may be 'responsible for' increasing sales in her division, however, if she doesn't tell the story of her actual sales results, we have no way to measure her performance."

Nicolai even provided an example on how to take "responsible for" out of the equation:

Poor statement: "Responsible for increasing sales over last year"
Good statement: "Achieved 20% increase over last year by increasing foot traffic through compelling marketing strategy targeted to niche consumer."

So when it comes to your own résumé, stay away from the generic "responsible for" and get creative with your verbs.