A resume that reads as a direct translation shares a handful of obvious symptoms: sentences that are grammatically correct but semantically wrong, word-for-word carryovers from another language, and a general feeling that the writer is describing themselves from the outside. Recruiters scanning this kind of resume often pause — not because the experience is weak, but because the phrasing feels foreign and slow to process.
Here is a real bullet point written by a non-native speaker. Before reading the rewrite, see if you can spot the problems.
Before (direct translation): "Responsible for the execution and coordination of the daily production plan as per the company instruction to realize the target of on-time delivery rate above 95%, which resulted in the receiving of the employee of the month award twice."
Problems:
After (native English resume style): "Coordinated and executed daily production plans to maintain on-time delivery above 95%. Won Employee of the Month twice for consistent performance."
The rewrite cut the word count in half, replaced noun phrases with action verbs, and made the candidate sound like a communicator, not a translator.
Direct translation almost always overuses "responsible for" because that construction is common in many languages. In English resumes, it is weak. Change it:
"As per" is a literal carryover from legal and bureaucratic language in several European and Asian languages. Native English uses "according to," "following," or nothing at all.
Direct translation adds prepositions where English does not need them. Watch for "of" and "in" especially.
Many languages naturally use nouns where English uses verbs. A resume full of "achievement of," "improvement of," "execution of" sounds translated. Flip them.
Non-native resumes often mix present and past tense within the same role, and drop or add articles (a, an, the) incorrectly. Pick one tense per role — always past tense for completed jobs — and proofread for every missing "a" or "the" before a singular countable noun.
Before sending your resume, scan it for these exact phrases. If any appear, rewrite them using the rule above:
Run a quick search on your document for each phrase. Fix them line by line.
Try the free resume phrasing checker
"Responsible for," "as per," "in the field of," "realization of," and "execution of" are the top five. If you see more than one of these per page, your resume likely reads like a translation.
Grammar checkers catch missing articles and some preposition errors, but they cannot tell you that "achievement of cost reduction" is unnatural. You need to learn the verb-first pattern and rewrite manually, or use a tool like PrismResume that highlights phrasing patterns.
No. Write directly in English using resume templates designed for the target market. Translating from another language almost always produces the noun-heavy, indirect phrasing described here. Start in English from the first draft.
ATS systems parse keywords based on literal text, so a translated resume that uses the right nouns (e.g., "project manager," "budget") will still match. But the phrasing makes you sound less fluent, and the human who reads the resume after the ATS will notice immediately.
Struggling with phrasing that sounds translated? Try the PrismResume checker — free, no sign-up — to identify awkward constructions and get rewrite suggestions.
Wondering how your own resume holds up?
Check it free — no sign-upNon-native English job seekers: 20 common direct-translation phrases that sound awkward or wrong on a US resume, with before/after rewrites. Includes formatting advice and a free tool.
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