Employers have revealed how jobseekers are ruining their chances of landing work by making bizarre gaffes on their CVs – including one who gave God as a reference.
Among some of the clangers are a candidate who listed lion tamer as a hobby, another who wrote their resume in rhyme, one who used a photograph of somebody else and an applicant who only gave their name and number with the phrase: “I want a job.”
Other howlers outlined in the survey by Careerbuilder.co.uk included a person who claimed to be a direct descendant of the Vikings and a candidate who listed “Master of Time and Universe” under his experience. Another failure was a candidate who wrote their CV on a page torn from an exercise book and one who sent in their application from an email address which had “lovesbeer in it.”
However, perhaps the most glaring own-goal came from somebody who put down the Almighty as a referee…..and without a phone number.
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Nearly one-third (32 per cent) of 194 UK employers surveyed said they spend one minute or less reviewing a CV. Fourteen per cent spend 30 seconds or less. Twenty-three per cent also said they detected a lie on a CV in the past year.
“You want to stack the deck in your favour when writing a CV,” said Tony Roy, president of CareerBuilder EMEA. “Make sure to highlight key accomplishments with quantifiable results, so employers can see how you put your skills into action. It’s also important to remember that employers often use electronic devices to screen and rank CVs. Pepper in keywords from the job ad into your CV as it relates to your experience to improve your ranking.”
