Thursday, May 13, 2010

Funny and Wacky Resume Blunders


It's hard to believe, but some people include some pretty wacky things on their resumes. When I asked hiring and HR professionals on LinkedIn to name a few of the worst resume mistakes (or strangest items) they've seen on a resume, here were some of their responses:

  • When an applicant misspells "accurate" or "detail-oriented" on their resume
  • The strangest thing I have seen was on the application form submitted with the resume. One question was: Have you ever been convicted of a crime? The answer: "No. I did steal a sports car once, but I was never caught."
  • A candidate who in "other interests" listed live role playing and went on to describe, in minute detail, a particularly vicious battle where he killed a dragon.
  • The worst typo was a candidate once gave an engineering shift manager as a reference but missed out the 'f'.
  • The strangest thing I have seen was someone describing a jail sentence as a Government funded project!
  • Had a 10-page, single-spaced, paragraph-form resume. First line on the resume talked about the person's attention to detail, so I thought I'd hit "spell check." Yup ... 11 misspelled words.
  • I once received a resume with a picture of the gentleman in the top corner in his bathing suit, stretched across a rocky beach!
  • I once had a guy write down his make and age of car, type of guitar he owned, type of music he liked to play, make of camera and types of photos he liked to take.
  • The worst/strangest item I've ever seen on a candidate's CV was a dynamic picture that linked to a girl's faceparty page which contained a detailed description of how she hates work, loves taking drugs, and also had numerous pictures of her topless on the beach and in various bars.
  • Had a recent college grad cite perfect attendance on her resume. Wouldn't have been so strange, except she was referencing elementary school!
The morale of this article: Always have someone proof your resume!

1 comment:

  1. Quite interesting post and informative too. Thanks for sharing.

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