CVs that cited God as a reference (no phone number) and had ‘Master of Time and Universe’ listed under the experience section were among the most bizarre CVs to hit recruiters’ desks last year.
The US topped the poll for the most unusual resumes with a candidate claiming to be a direct descendent of the Vikings, while another fourth wrote “lovesbeer” in their covering email.
European jobseekers were more restrained, however. One wrote their CV in rhyme, while another gave only their name and phone number, followed by the phrase “I want a job”. A third wrote their CV on a page torn from an exercise book, while a fourth included mystery shopper under her work experience but refused to reveal the name of the employer as it was “a secret”
A survey among 194 UK employers undertaken by online job site Careerbuilder.co.uk, meanwhile, also found that just under a third of employers spent a minute or less reviewing any given CV, while 14% took 30 seconds or less.
Some 23% said that they spotted obvious lies, although most felt that the biggest turnoff was spelling mistakes and typos. Other things that put them off were large blocks of text that were difficult to read (36%), exact text that was cut and pasted from job adverts (36%) and CVs with no covering letter (26%).
The most popular key words when scanning CVs, however, were communication skills (68%), problem-solving skills (62%) and computer software skills (44%).
Obvious errors were even more marked among the CVs of IT workers, however. A survey undertaken by specialist IT recruitment web site CWJob.co.uk indicated that 88% often saw some kind of mistake on job seekers’ resumes, with 70% citing spelling and grammatical errors as being the most common.
While 74% of IT candidates believed that they represented themselves better in person than on paper, two thirds of recruiters said that they regularly experienced poor communication skills during the interview process. Some 47% revealed that interviewees rambled, while 27% said they wore inappropriate casual dress.
