The Big Resume Mistakes That Can Kill a Good Job Opportunity

There is a line in the novel “Anna Karenina,” that says, “be bad, but at least don’t be a liar, a deceiver.”

Tolstoy most likely didn’t intend for that to be applied to the working world, but it does. And it’s something more people should probably take note of. In fact, a recent survey conducted for CareerBuilder, an online job board, found that 77% of human resources (HR) managers reported discovering a lie on a resume.

While many outright lies were spotted, those surveyed also noted that they discovered several errors on resumes they received. These were two of the most notable.

An applicant’s name was auto-corrected from “Flin” to “Flintstone.” His name was Freddie.
An applicant stated they had great attention to detail, but “attention” was misspelled.

Some other resume cringe-worthy blunders reported in the survey included:

An applicant listed a skill as “taking long walks.”
An applicant claimed he would work harder if paid more.
An applicant wrote the following at the end of their resume: “I didn’t really fill this out, someone did it for me.”
An applicant used a resume template with cats in the corners.
An applicant listed smoking under hobbies.

Methodology

To gather this information, CareerBuilder used Harris Poll to survey 2,153 hiring and HR managers ages 18 and older. All those surveyed were full-time employees who are not self-employed and do not work for the government. The survey, which was conducted from May 11 to June 7, 2016, has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.11 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, according to the press release.

What Employers Really Want to See

The survey reported that more than two in five hiring managers spend less than a minute looking at a resume, with nearly one in four saying they spend less than 30 seconds. To stand out, 63% of those surveyed said they are more likely to pay attention to a resume that is customized to the role they’re applying for, while 41% said they look at those with skill sets listed first. Other items that caught their eye is when a cover letter is included, an application is addressed to the specific hiring manager and a resume includes a link to a candidate’s blog, portfolio or website.

It’s also important to remember that many employers look at a version of your credit report as part of the application process and your credit is certainly something you can’t fib your way around. So, it’s a good idea to take a look at your credit reports and get an idea of what’s on there — and to dispute any errors that may be weighing you down. You can see a free credit report summary, updated every 14 days, on Credit.com.

Image: shironosov