In the professionally thriving hiring field, identifying red flags in resumes is essential to avoid hiring mistakes and ensure that only the most qualified candidates make it to the next stage. While resumes are designed to showcase a candidate’s strengths, they can also conceal weaknesses or exaggerate qualifications, requiring hiring to read between the lines. The major red flag is untenable employment gaps, which indicate unresolved issues unless rightly addressed by the job seekers. Similarly, certain lack of specific accomplishments, such as change-making quantifiable results, might suggest that the job seekers’ contributions in previous roles were a little tricky to measure. Inflation in the jobs and inconsistent career progression can also be warning signs and questions about the accuracy of the information being overstated by the candidates. Seemingly minor errors can signal a lack of attention to detail, a crucial quality in most professional roles. Frequent job-hopping, especially without logical explanations, might indicate a lack of commitment or difficulty adapting to organisational cultures. Overly vague descriptions of roles and responsibilities could indicate an attempt to mask a lack of significant contributions. At the same time, excessive jargon or buzzwords may suggest an attempt to compensate for a lack of real expertise.