How do I know if my resume has these mistakes?

The fastest way is to upload your resume and a job description to a tailoring tool. It will show you your ATS match score and identify exactly which keywords you are missing. If your score is below 60 percent, one or more of these mistakes is probably the reason.

Can I just fix these mistakes once and use the same resume for every job?

You can fix the formatting and translation errors once, which will help. But the keyword mismatch problem (mistake number 4) can only be fixed by tailoring your resume to each job description. Different jobs scan for different keywords. You need to match the one in front of you.

What is the single biggest mistake that gets veterans rejected?

Using military jargon and acronyms instead of civilian equivalent terms. It is the most common issue and it affects every other part of your resume. If the ATS cannot understand your job titles and bullet points, none of your experience counts. Fix the language first, then fix the keywords.

7 Resume Mistakes That Get Veterans Rejected (And How to Fix Each One)

By GetVetsHired · July 2026 · 5 min read

You are qualified. You know it. The job posting reads like it was written for you. You hit submit. And then nothing. The problem is not your experience. It is a handful of small, fixable mistakes on your resume that trigger the ATS to toss your application before a human ever sees it. Here are the seven most common ones, and exactly how to fix each.

1. Leading with your MOS instead of your function

Nobody outside the military knows what 11B, 68W, or 92Y means. And nobody outside the military cares. The hiring manager wants to know what you did, not what the Army called it. '11B Infantryman' tells them nothing useful. 'Team leader with 4 years of experience directing personnel, managing resources, and executing plans under pressure' tells them exactly what you bring. Lead every role on your resume with the civilian function, not the military code. Put the MOS in parentheses if you want, but do not lead with it.

2. Using military jargon nobody understands

Words like NCOIC, MTOE, SSA, COMSEC, and SIDPERS are invisible to civilian ATS systems. The software does not know these are real job functions. It treats them as unrecognized words and ignores them. That means your most important experience does not get counted. Replace every military acronym and jargon term with its civilian equivalent. 'NCOIC of maintenance section' becomes 'maintenance supervisor managing a team of 12 technicians.' Same job. Different words. Completely different result.

3. Leaving out the numbers

Civilian resumes run on numbers. How many people did you lead? What was the value of the equipment you managed? What percentage improvement did you achieve? If your resume says 'managed equipment' instead of 'managed $4.2M in equipment across three locations with 100% accountability,' you are underselling yourself. Every veteran has numbers. Team size. Budget size. Asset value. Personnel tracked. Training hours delivered. Pull them out. Put them on the page. Numbers are the single fastest way to convince a hiring manager you can deliver results.

4. Using the same resume for every application

This is the most common mistake and the most expensive one. Every job posting uses different keywords. A logistics coordinator posting scans for 'supply chain management' and 'inventory control.' A project manager posting scans for 'stakeholder coordination' and 'milestone tracking.' If you send the same resume to both, at least one of them is getting rejected. Not because you are not qualified. Because the ATS did not find the words it was looking for. Tailor your resume for every single application. It takes five minutes with a tailoring tool. It makes the difference between getting filtered out and getting called in.

5. Making your resume too short or too long

The one-page resume rule is bad advice for veterans. If you served for 6 years and held three different roles, you cannot fit all of that on one page without cutting important details. But a four-page resume is too long for most private-sector jobs. The sweet spot for veterans with 4 to 10 years of service is two pages. One page is fine if you only had one role. Three pages is fine if you had 15 or more years. The rule is not about page count. It is about relevance. Every line on your resume should answer the question 'why does this matter for this specific job.' If a bullet does not answer that question, cut it.

6. Using a creative template that breaks the ATS

That resume template with columns, graphics, color blocks, and a headshot looks great. It also confuses ATS software. When the system tries to parse a multi-column layout, it reads text out of order. Your skills section ends up nested inside your experience section. Your contact information gets scrambled. The human never sees any of this because the ATS rejected the file before it got that far. Use a single-column layout. Use standard section headers like Experience, Education, and Skills. Save as a PDF or Word document. Clean formatting beats pretty formatting every time.

7. Not including a skills section with the right keywords

The skills section on a resume is prime real estate for keywords. Most ATS systems scan the skills section separately and weight it heavily. If your resume does not have a dedicated skills section, or if that section is full of military terms instead of industry keywords, you are missing the easiest way to boost your ATS score. List hard skills first: specific software, certifications, tools, and technical abilities. Then soft skills: leadership, communication, problem-solving. Pull the exact keywords from the job description and put them in your skills section. A tailoring tool can identify which keywords you are missing and where to put them.

The fastest way to fix all seven mistakes at once

You could go through your resume line by line and fix each of these manually. It would take an hour or two and you would still miss things. Or you can upload your resume and paste the job description into a tailoring tool. It identifies every mistake, translates military jargon into civilian language, pulls in the right keywords, and formats everything so the ATS can actually read it. Same experience. Same qualifications. Just presented so it gets seen.

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