CNN recently posted a neat article about ten of the most audacious fibs told on resumes. In an increasingly competitive job world, putting one’s best foot forward on a resume or in an interview is the only smart thing to do, but for some people the best foot forward turns out to be the foot that landed in dog poop.
I’ve been interviewing for a new junior hire over the past couple of weeks. While I haven’t hit any fibs quite as outrageous as the ones collected by CNN, I’ve seen some interesting behavior over the past couple of weeks.
The CNN article can be found here.
For your consideration, here are a few really good ways to blow your chances of getting hired:
1. Put everything on the resume except what matters.
One candidate sent in a nine-page document that recorded just about everything except for the number of times he or she goes to the bathroom in a day. That would be great, except that it’s all buzzwords and no substance. Meanwhile, in this expansive document, all the important stuff was missing. Case in point:
Exceeded management expectations.
How?
Single-handedly turned a negative perception of [business unit name] around.
Great! What did you do?
I declined to interview this one.
2. Go over my head.
I read one unimpressive internal resume and declined to interview the candidate. Next thing I knew, a very senior executive was banging down the door demanding to know why.
If a very senior executive is trying to offload someone on his own team, what does that tell you about the candidate?
The bossman and I interviewed the candidate together, largely so we could back each other up if crap started raining from the skies.
The interview was interesting. It confirmed my original expectations and then some. Afterwards, the bossman looked at me and said, Well, that was a waste of an hour.
Thanks to this person’s effort to override my initial decision, now our entire division knows not to touch this one with a ten-foot pole.
