How to Read a Resume Without Getting Duped

Hiring managers in construction management (and most industries) often face a paradox with resumes. On one hand, a resume can reveal a great deal about a candidate’s history, skills, and professionalism. On the other hand, resumes are marketing documents – sometimes fictitious or superficial – that can mislead if taken at face value.

What You Can Learn from a Resume

A well-crafted resume provides a wealth of information beyond just employment dates and job titles. By reading between the lines, you can discern several important aspects of a candidate:

• Career Trajectory and Progression: The timeline of roles tells a story. Look at how a candidate has advanced (or not) in responsibility. For middle to senior management positions, you’d expect to see growth – e.g. moving from project engineer to project manager to construction director over time. Consistent upward progression or expansion of duties can indicate ambition and competence. Conversely, lateral moves or demotions might warrant deeper questions. Tenure length is also key: someone with many stints of only a year or so could be a red flag (e.g. multiple roles around the 18-month mark can signal a pattern of leaving when real accountability kicks in)¹. Stable, longer tenures in relevant positions suggest reliability, but context is important – frequent moves may also indicate consulting work or company-wide layoffs rather than performance issues.

• Relevant Experience and Skills: Hiring managers scan resumes for the right kind of experience and skills that match the job requirements². A strong resume will clearly highlight the candidate’s experience in areas that align with the role. For instance, a construction management resume should mention oversight of projects of similar scale, knowledge of building codes, budgeting, safety compliance, etc. Be attentive to the specific skills and technologies listed – do they match what the position needs? Many recruiters immediately hunt for keywords or core competencies (e.g. “project scheduling software,” “PMP certification,” “LEAN construction”) to see if the candidate checks the basic skill boxes. In fact, 41% of recruiters look for skills on a resume first as their initial filter⁶.

• Achievements and Impact: Beyond job duties, resumes can reveal how a candidate measures success. Hiring managers love to see results, not just responsibilities³. Look for quantified accomplishments: did the candidate increase efficiency, cut costs, grow revenue, finish projects under budget or ahead of schedule? The presence of concrete results and numbers is a strong indicator of an achievement-oriented individual². As one hiring manager put it, most resumes list “the busy work you did” but executives want to see the business results of those activities².

• Communication and Professionalism: The resume’s writing style and format speak volumes about a candidate’s communication skills and attention to detail. In a management role, clear communication is essential, and the resume is a first test. Red flags like spelling or grammar errors, disorganized layout, or overly dense paragraphs can signal lack of care or poor communication². On the flip side, a resume that is easy to read, with a clean structure and concise bullet points, indicates that the candidate can present information in an organized manner². One recruiter famously noted that “In seven seconds, I should be able to easily scan a resume and read all of the important highlights” if it’s well-formatted².

• Cultural Fit and Personal Traits: While a resume is a formal document, it can still hint at a candidate’s personality and values. For instance, the inclusion of volunteer work, professional associations, or mentorship roles might indicate someone who is community-minded or a leader outside their job description. The way achievements are phrased can also be telling. Subtle cues in what the candidate chooses to highlight (and what they omit) provide a starting sketch of their professional character.

• Alignment with the Role and Industry: A resume tailored to the job posting stands out. If you serve the construction management space, you know the industry’s keywords and challenges. Does the candidate speak the language of your industry? A tailored resume will mirror the job description’s key terms and explicitly connect the candidate’s experience to the job’s requirements². Hiring managers often can “tell your interest level from words on a screen” – the effort a candidate made to target their resume to the job is evident in how specifically they address the role².

In fields like construction management, all these points hold true but with some industry flavor. For instance, a construction management resume that lists hard numbers – project budgets managed, square footage built, safety incident reductions, number of subcontractors overseen – gives you concrete evidence of scale and competence.

Still, resumes can be deceiving in both directions. Some of the most respected senior superintendents we’ve worked with had resumes that were humble to the point of being easy to underestimate. One veteran superintendent listed just a few lines under each role, no bold claims, no metrics—just quiet consistency over decades. Yet when you spoke with their teams or walked one of their jobsites, their influence was unmistakable. Conversely, we’ve seen younger project managers submit sleek, buzzword-heavy resumes with high-end formatting and well-marketed wins. In reality, some of these individuals knew how to write checks their construction skills couldn’t cash. The resume looked brilliant; the field performance didn’t hold up. These contrasting examples reinforce why resume discernment requires context, humility, and verification.

One of the things we pride ourselves on at Ambassador Group is being able to discern a great candidate from one with a poor resume, or vice versa. It is particularly pleasurable to impress a client with a candidate who looks terrible on paper because it shows unmistakably how deeply we care and observe. That’s not to say we are perfect, however.

Red Flags and Resume Limitations to Watch Out For

While resumes offer valuable insights, they only tell part of the story – and sometimes a misleading one. It’s crucial for hiring managers to approach resumes with a critical eye:

• Inconsistencies or Gaps: A well-prepared resume typically has no unexplained gaps or conflicting details in work history². If you spot inconsistencies – say the resume claims a job title on paper but their LinkedIn lists a different title or dates – that’s a signal to dig deeper.

• Too Good to Be True Achievements: Be wary of resumes where every accomplishment is monumental or where a junior title claims credit for extremely high-level results. Remember that candidates may embellish their accomplishments – one study notes that “embellishing job responsibilities” is one of the top lies on resumes⁴.

• Vague or Buzzword-Filled Language: Phrases like “results-oriented thought leader” or “strategic thinker with dynamic synergy skills” without context or examples could indicate a candidate relying on clichés.

• Lack of Customization (Generic Resume): Signs of a mass-distributed resume include an objective or summary that doesn’t quite fit the role, or mention of unrelated goals. One hiring manager observes that in a mere few seconds they can tell if “my job posting is just one of many” the candidate is applying to².

• Formatting and Care Issues: Spelling or grammar mistakes are to be avoided at all costs² – it’s expected that candidates put their best foot forward. If their best foot forward is full of errors, that’s a cautionary signal.

• Inconsistent Story (Resume vs. Reality): A classic example is inconsistent online presence. This kind of mismatch could be an honest oversight or a sign of résumé inflation².

• Signs of Exaggeration or Dishonesty: Surveys and studies routinely find that a large percentage of workers admit to lying on their resumes. One 2024 report found 64.2% of employees have lied about skills, experience, or references at least once on a resume⁴. A significant fraction of people lie about degrees⁴. According to one HR survey, 75% of hiring managers have caught a lie on a resume⁶.

• Bias Traps in Resume Review: Studies have shown that factors often gleaned from resumes like years of education or experience are actually among the least predictive of job performance⁵. One study showed resumes with non-Anglo names were less likely to get callbacks⁴.

Using Resumes as Part of a Holistic Hiring Process

Given both the insights and the pitfalls of resumes, the best approach is to use the resume wisely as one component of your broader evaluation. Here are strategies for hiring managers:

1. Prepare Guided Interview Questions from the Resume: One executive recruiter shares that he starts every interview by having the candidate walk through their resume, job by job, discussing the best and worst parts of each role and why they left¹.
2. Look for Pattern Consistency Between Resume and Interview: A survey found that among candidates who lied on resumes, the most common stage for lies to be uncovered was during the interview process (about 31.5%)⁴.
3. Verify Key Information When Necessary: Many employers do this routinely: one survey noted 57% of American employers verify education qualifications during hiring⁴.
4. Combine the Resume with Other Assessment Tools: Research consistently finds that structured interviews and work sample tests have far higher predictive validity for job success than resume evaluations alone⁵.
5. Remain Objective and Self-Aware: Consider writing down your evaluation before reading colleagues’ opinions, so you aren’t swayed by others⁵. Avoid overconfidence in “reading” people purely from resumes⁵.
6. Use Resumes for Reference Conversations: The resume can guide your reference questions. Discrepancies here can be illuminating.

Advice for Candidates: How Your Resume Will Be Interpreted

While this guide is aimed at hiring authorities, it bears noting that candidates can benefit from understanding how their resumes are read:

• Tailor Your Resume for Each Application: Hiring managers notice when “the resume can, and must, be tailored for every position” – it shows genuine interest².
• Focus on Impact, Not Just Duties: Recruiters and executives prefer to see achievements and results rather than just a list of responsibilities³.
• Be Honest and Don’t Overinflate: Andrew Fennell warns that while recruiters expect little white lies, lying about college degrees or former employment history is a quick way to get discarded and blocked⁴.
• Mind the Details – They Speak for You: Make sure dates and titles are accurate and consistent with your LinkedIn or other materials².
• Show Consistency Across Platforms: In the digital age, hiring managers often look you up online. Ensure your LinkedIn profile aligns with your resume².

Conclusion

Resumes remain a cornerstone of the hiring process, especially for middle and senior management roles, but they should be viewed with a balanced perspective. A resume can reveal a candidate’s career path, skills, accomplishments, and even hint at personal traits like attention to detail and communication style. A savvy hiring manager can read between the lines to pick up on patterns – both positive indicators and potential concerns. However, a resume can also conceal or distort reality.

The key for hiring authorities is to use resumes as one tool among many. Trust, but verify. Use them to make your hiring process more informed, not automatic. When you strike this balance, you’ll enhance your ability to discern the true strengths and weaknesses of candidates and ultimately make better hires.

Sources:

1. Staffing Advisors – “How to Interview for Career Patterns”
2. The Undercover Recruiter – “True Confessions of a Hiring Manager” by Tanya White
3. Michael Page – “Nine Things Recruiters and Employers Look for in a Resume”
4. HRO Today – “Over Half of Employees Report Lying on Resumes” (2024)
5. Frontiers in Psychology – Risavy et al. (2022), “Resumes vs. Application Forms”
6. Resume.io Blog – “Resume Statistics (2025)”

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