Too often, job seekers get overly creative or personal with their résumés in order to make an impression, but irrelevant information and goofy details can be perceived as unprofessional and may cause the résumé to be rejected on the spot.
Some of them were particularly poor choices. For example:
“Candidate included that he was arrested for assaulting his previous boss.”
Others were particularly odd choices.
“Candidates — a husband and wife looking to job share — submitted a co-written poem.”
Some were the result of poor editing.
“Candidate said that he would be a “good asset to the company,†but failed to include the “et†in the word ‘asset.'”
Some were clearly lacking professionalism.
“Candidate’s email address on the résumé had “shakinmybootie†in it.”
All of them were actually done. All of them sunk the candidate.
These are the kinds of things we need to make sure to talk about with our business writing students. Sometimes they too can’t tell the difference between “catching attention” and “going down in flames.”