I cannot tell you how often this happens, you leave your resume on screen on your laptop or home computer and walk away for a few minutes and your flatmate or boyfriend (it’s always the boyfriend!) thinks they will have a laugh and add something into your resume for a joke. Then you innocently come back and happily go about applying for jobs with no idea that one of the skills listed in your resume is giving your boyfriend….well you get what I mean.
This is a true story. One of our consultants had to pick up the phone and tell a very embarrassed job seeker that her resume listed some rather graphic special skills. She had sent her resume everywhere and now she knew that there were people all over town having a snigger at her expense. I would like to say that people would realise that she had been pranked and look past it, but you can never guarantee that – the honest truth is some people would just put her in the ‘no’ pile for not picking up the error before she hit send.
We got another one this week…although to be fair, maybe he wrote it himself because the rest of the resume is almost illiterate. But anyway, in big bold, underlined, bright red letters was “Hi, I’m [Name] and I’m being a d*#$%head…give me a job.” Sure! Because hiring managers are always on the lookout for a d*$%head.
So people, to make sure you are not ruled out, based on something ridiculous that someone else has put in your resume when you were making another cup of Nescafé 43, check your resume before you send it!
