Resume Help Blog

With so many people out of work we are all aware of how much pressure this puts on everyone. I came across this and thought it might lighten the load a little. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Think resume typos are no big deal? Last year, Accountemps, a temporary staffing firm, interviewed 150 senior executives from some of the nation’s largest companies. Forty percent of the respondents said that just one typo on a resume would cause the candidate to be eliminated. Thirty-six percent said it would take just two mistakes before the resume was put in the “no” pile. Here are some of my favorite resume bloopers I found via Job Mob, Resume Hell, and Zimbio. Obviously spell-check isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

• Objective: Seeking a party-time position with room for advancement
• Professional headline: 1 year old marketing executive
• Achievement: Planned new corporate facility at $3M over budget.
• Explanation of employment gap: career break in 1999 to renovate my horse
• References: Referees available upon request
• Skills: I am a rabid typist
• Strengths: Impersonal skills
• Hobbies: Enjoy cooking Chinese and Italians
• Education: College: August 1880 to May 1984
• Cover letter: I would like to assure you that I am a hardly working person.

And just how much information on a resume is too much?

• Objective: To have my skills and ethics challenged on a regular basis
• Personal Information: Married, eight children, prefer frequent travel
• Language Skills: Exposure to German for two years-but many words are inappropriate for business
• Reason for leaving last job: the owner gave new meaning to the word paranoia
• Achievements: Nominated for prom queen
• Education: Finished eighth in a class of ten
• Interests: Gossiping
• Awards: National record for eating 45 eggs in two minutes
• References: Bill, Tom, Eric – but I don’t know their phone numbers
• Salary: The higher the better
• Cover letter: Please disregard the attached resume; it’s totally outdated