The last several years have been ones of helping our young people write resumes. Some went smoothly. Others were agonizing.
I read an article called “Avoid these resume mistakes” in my Sunday Chicago Tribune, August 16, 2015, Section 2, page 12. Being able to write a decent resume is a critical life skill. Career Builder surveyed employers to ask what mistakes or blunders (or outright lies!) they had found on applicants resumes. Some of the best are below:
- Applicant claimed to be a former CEO of the company to which they were applying.
- Applicant claimed to be fluent in two languages – one of which was pig Latin
- Applicant wrote “whorehouse” instead of “warehouse” when listing work history
- Applicant’s personal website linked to a porn site
- User name of applicant’s email address was “2poopy4mypants.”
- Applicant claimed to be a Nobel Prize Winner.
- Applicant claimed to have worked in a jail when they were in there serving time.
- Applicant who claimed to be HVAC certified later asked the hiring manager what HVAC meant.
- Applicant claimed to have attended a college that didn’t exist.
- Applicant listed as a reference an employer from whom they had embezzled money and had an arrest warrant out for the applicant.
- Applicant’s stated job history had him in three different companied and three different cities simultaneously.
Moral of the story is to tell the truth, all the time, and present an accurate picture of yourself. Sharing the humor of this list with your young person might make him think about puffing his work experience. Make this life skill focus on portraying optimism with potential with integrity.
