Question of the day: What is the worst thing you have seen a candidate include on a resume?

Follow up from today's RBC Daily:

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Permalink Reply by Raphael Fang on February 22, 2012 at 2:32pm

Someone mailed me a resume with $5 gift card to a coffee shop a few years ago and he wasn't remotely qualified for the job. I also gave the gift card to the receptionist and I wasn't a fan of that coffee shop.

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Permalink Reply by Sarah Mullens on February 22, 2012 at 3:59pm

A candidate applied for a reception role offered by one of my colleagues. She included a full-length shot of her in a skimpy bikini, pole-dancing.

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Permalink Reply by Caitlin Carruthers on February 22, 2012 at 6:59pm

Too many to mention, so I'll list my top three.

1. There was one making the rounds in London a few years ago. The front page of the CV had three legal positions mentioned, with the reason for leaving each of them as 'Unwanted sexual attentions' or some variation on this theme. Over the page, she listed her part time positions held whilst at University - as an 'exotic dancer' in three different Club X venues! She even went so far as to list her...*ahem*..."specialities," such as erotic massage, lap dancing and others which I won't mention in a professional forum :-) I have no problem with women who dance for a living, but please, when it becomes more than dancing, don't put it on your resume.

2. Number two came in when I was working in retail to put myself through University and the thought of a career in recruitment had never even crossed my mind. This potential employee listed under 'Acheivements' that he was a) the Inter-Campus Fishing Champion (okaaay... not something that I would include, but let's carry on) and b) the Inter-Campus Donut-Gobbling Champion (enough said, I think).

3. The resume that concluded with a one page 'About Me' section, including such gems of wisdom as 'I dropped out of college because I wasn't mature enough to avoid the party lifestyle and spent too much time getting drunk' and 'I play guitar in what could only be described as 'frenzied white-boy style''.

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Permalink Reply by Bill Schultz on February 22, 2012 at 7:50pm

Long time ago I read a resume that had listed in skill section " I know Lotus 1,2 and 3!

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Permalink Reply by Carolyn F. Jackson on February 23, 2012 at 10:29am

I have seen everything from their photos, to their personal hobbies and inappropriate details about their family make-up and life. Not sure why people think that it is okay to include that information on their resumes?!

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Permalink Reply by Kyle Schafroth on February 23, 2012 at 10:43am

@Carolyn - I feel like many candidates (at all stages of their careers) get sucked into this supposed mind game or screwy thought process of "make yourself stand out to the recruiter" when they're job hunting and then take it too far.

They start trying to pack all of these "look at me - aren't I interesting!" details into their resume hoping someone grabs it and thinks, "wow...this person is interesting" or "what a different approach - let's get this person in for a talk!".

It probably works somewhere in the world but it ends up scaring most recruiters and hiring managers off.

Just my opinion - I'm sure someone has a different/better take on it though.

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Permalink Reply by Carolyn F. Jackson on February 23, 2012 at 11:01am

@Sarah Mullens I cannot believe that.....that is too much!

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Permalink Reply by Sarah Mullens on February 23, 2012 at 3:41pm

@Carolyn - funnily enough, I was discussing this blog topic with a colleague and I mentioned the pole-dancing, bikini-clad receptionist candidate, and my colleague replied, "Was that the girl with the big tattoo down one arm?" Um, yes, that was indeed the one! Apparently my agency was not the only recipient of this CV!

Carolyn F. Jackson said:

@Sarah Mullens I cannot believe that.....that is too much!

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Permalink Reply by Noel Cocca on February 26, 2012 at 2:04pm

I did have a CV that had "trial pending for shooting neighbor" listed under current activities...turns out his neihbor was an alcoholic and kicked in his door at 4am when he couldnt get the door to open at the wrong house...when my doctor ran downstairs the man jumped on him and started to hit him, the doctor had a gun and shot him...true story. Never placed the doctor but true story.