9. Unexplained gaps in work history.
While job seekers should account for these gaps, they should be careful with their wording. “One of the weirdest things that I ever saw on a résumé…was a candidate who explained a 10-year lapse in work experience as being in jail during those years for killing her husband,” recalls Linda Goodspeed, marketing recruiting manager at VistaPrint. In such a situation, she says, the best thing to write would be “left work for personal reasons,” and the candidate would be able to explain the criminal record later.