When it comes to job hunting, a well-written tech resume continues to play a crucial role in impressing potential employers and landing interviews. However, you might be surprised to learn that many well-known “facts” about resumes… aren't actually facts at all.

There are a multitude of myths and wrongheaded beliefs about what a good resume should include, or the best techniques for getting it past screening software and into human hands.

In fact, blindly following even some of these misconceptions can actually hinder your job search. To keep your job hunt moving forward, here are some common myths about the content of tech resumes, their format and the review process that you shouldn't believe.

Your Resume Should Tell What You Can Do for the Company

The idea that resumes should tell the employer about your experiences, skills and work history is false. Your resume should “show” not “tell” what you can do for an employer, explained Nicole Ford, technical resume writer and founder of TechBot Resumes.

What’s the difference? In a nutshell, “showing” paints a picture of your capabilities in the reviewer’s mind by explaining how you’ve applied your technical and soft skills in a way that made a positive impact on costs, effectiveness, user adoption rates and so forth.

“Telling” simply states what you did or the tasks you’ve completed. It fails to answer the "so what” question that hiring managers ask as they review your resume.

Use Keyword Stuffing to Beat the Bots

Contrary to popular belief, none of the major applicant tracking systems (ATS) reject resumes automatically or conceal them from recruiters.

“An ATS doesn’t reject a resume by itself,” explained Laura Smith-Proulx, executive resume writer and former recruiter. It simply parses resumes and keeps track of their content and status.

Cramming your resume with every job you've ever had (or the names of every technical tool or program you’ve ever been exposed to) in the hopes of beating the ATS can cost you the chance to interview. Instead, consider the audience, Smith-Proulx advised. Spend more time impressing the human reviewer instead of the bot by describing the impact of your work and how you’ve applied the most relevant tools and soft skills to achieve results.

Limit Your Resume to One Page

It’s a myth that you need to keep your resume to a single page, noted Monique Montanino, executive career coach and founder of Tech Resume Guru.

In fact a two-page resume is usually adequate for mid-career or even senior tech professionals. So how do you fit everything into two pages if you have a lengthy work history?

In general, it’s not necessary to list every job you've ever had on your resume. If a job or project isn’t relevant or parallel the role you’re pursuing, leave it off. Don’t dilute your message. Focus on the top three technical and soft skills needed to carry out the job responsibilities.

Your Resume Should Be Visually Interesting and Unique

An ATS may not be able to read data placed in images, tables, text boxes or headers and footers, so it's best to avoid these elements completely. Plus, many recruiters and HR professionals automatically reject resumes with candidate photos or headshots to avoid potential discrimination in the hiring process.

Forget the gimmicks. Focus on readability instead by using bold face type, bullets and white space to separate different sections of your resume.

It Takes a “Big” Opening Summary to Grab the Reader’s Attention

While your resume’s opening summary absolutely needs to intrigue the reviewer and encourage them to read the rest of the document, it shouldn’t be longer than three to five sentences.

Recruiters and hiring managers aren’t going to read a big block paragraph, Ford said. Instead, think of the opening summary as a highlight reel. Encourage the reviewer to read the rest of the document by replacing fluffy buzzwords and jargon with a quick overview of your know-how and how you can be a valuable asset to the company.

Boost Your Appeal by Highlighting Personal Attributes and Qualities

When used correctly, mentioning desirable character traits and qualities in your resume can distinguish yourself from other candidates with similar skills and experience.

However, unless you also provide context by demonstrating how you’ve used attributes like teamwork, commitment and attention to detail to achieve superior results, they are meaningless.

What’s more, far too many tech professionals claim the same attributes, making them trite and overused. Provide numbers and clear statistics to support your use of compelling adjectives and attributes.

You Need to Hide the Gaps in Your Work History

Unless you have a lengthy history of changing jobs every few months, you don’t need to go out of your way to camouflage some type of employment gap. There is less of a stigma attached to gaps in a resume, just be prepared to explain what happened and how you used the time to acquire new skills or improve during an interview.

Your Resume Has to Be Customized for Every Job

Frankly, customizing your resume for every opening is way too time-consuming… and it’s not a magic bullet. You’re better off creating a core resume and one or two slight variations depending on the types of jobs you want to pursue and spend the rest of your time networking and getting referrals.

As Smith-Proulx noted she’s seen lots of referred candidates get hired over others, even though they had less-than-stellar resumes.