1. Targeting Senior IC roles in functions without a Senior IC track (CSM, AM, Marketing IC, Recruiting). The market does not hire 20-year IC CSMs.
2. Mixing function families in one search ("I'm open to Sales, Marketing, or Customer Success"). The resume can't credibly position for three families. Run two searches if you have to. Don't run one mixed search.
3. Title-inflated comparison: Director at a 15-person startup applying to Director at a 5,000-person enterprise. Different scope, different market read. Position one tier down or reframe scope explicitly.
4. Geographic optimism: applying to "remote" roles that are actually geo-restricted. Validate the market size before launching the search.
5. Comp expectation above the 75th percentile of the target title's market band. Either move up one level or reset the expectation.
All five are positioning errors, not resume errors. No amount of bullet rewriting fixes any of them.
— Dr. Hosney Adel