A former Google recruiter says applicants have 'zero chance' of moving forward if their résumé is full of 'text bricks'

• A former Google recruiter said a common résumé mistake is when there's too much text and words.
• He said applicants have "zero chance" of moving forward once he spots this easily avoidable error.

A former Google recruiter opened up about common mistakes made in résumés that could prevent an applicant from landing their dream job at the tech giant.

Google jobs are incredibly competitive with the company receiving as many as two million applicants a year, according to Forbes reporting in 2014, making it harder to get a spot at the company than getting into Harvard. That's why it's imperative to impress recruiters from the start.

Nolan Church, co-founder and CEO of executive talent platform Continuum, worked as a Google recruiter from 2012 to 2015. He told CNBC that the "number one thing I don't want to see on a résumé is probably brick texts," which he explained is an "endless stream of text that have a lot of words but not a lot of context."

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Church said: "There's zero chance you're going to move forward," when he sees this format.

The ability to be "concise" is a crucial skill and if an applicant is unable to do that then "there's just no way you're going to be able to succinctly write in the workplace."

Church advised applicants to use apps like ChatGPT or Grammarly to help clean up and tighten their résumé.

Google laid off 12,000 employees this year in an effort to cut costs, so the hiring process is likely to be even more stringent and difficult as the company will be taking on fewer recruits.

Laszlo Bock, a former Google executive who spent 20 years at the company, saw over 20,000 résumés during his time there.

Bock said the most common mistakes included typos, poor formatting, and résumés that are far too long.

"A good rule of thumb is one page of resume for every 10 years of work experience," Bock said. "Once you're in the room, the résumé doesn't matter much. So cut back your résumé."