Smoking as a hobby? CareerBuilder releases list of worst resume mistakes

WASHINGTON — CareerBuilder is out with its annual list of the most outrageous resume blunders job applicants make, based on a survey of human resource managers. Once again, they’re doozies.

One applicant failed to catch that his name was auto-corrected from “Fin” to “Flintstone. Another applicant’s resume stated he had great attention to detail, but the word “attention” was misspelled.

Those kinds of mistakes might get your resume noticed, but not for the right reasons.

CareerBuilder says 43 percent of human resource managers spend less than a minute looking at a resume, and 24 percent spend less than 30 seconds, so making a resume stand out is important.

CareerBuilder offers some tips for making your resume stand out for the right reasons. Among them, listing skill sets first on the resume, addressing the application to the specific hiring manager and including links to a candidate’s blog, portfolio or website.

Making the resume customized to the specific open position and including a personalized cover letter also rank high as positives.

Here are some of the other blunders cited by HR managers in this year’s CareerBuilder survey:

  • Applicant claimed he worked at a federal prison. A background check determined he was actually a prisoner.
  • Applicant stated he had been a prince in another life.
  • Applicant listed “taking long walks” as a skill.
  • Applicant used direct quotes from “Star Wars” in the resume.
  • Applicant claimed he would work harder if paid more.
  • Application wrote the following at the end of the application: “I didn’t really fill this out, someone did it for me.”
  • Applicant used a resume template with cats in the corners.
  • Applicant listed “smoking” under hobbies.

CareerBuilder’s nationwide survey, conducted by Harris Poll between May 11 and June 7, included 2,153 hiring and human resource managers.

Jeff Clabaugh

Jeff Clabaugh has spent 20 years covering the Washington region's economy and financial markets for WTOP as part of a partnership with the Washington Business Journal, and officially joined the WTOP newsroom staff in January 2016.

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