When applying for jobs, it’s important to have something that will set you apart. But, sometimes it’s not necessarily a good thing that your resume catches a potential employer’s attention.
Here, hiring managers share the weirdest thing they’ve seen listed on a person’s resume.
1/28. “Can make 60 second noodles in 58 seconds”
2/28. I was interviewing a young man that said he was fluent in German. I then spoke German to him. He did not speak German.
3/28. When my best friend was in school, her teacher had the class make BS resumes just so they would know how in the future. Unfortunately for her, when she actually was looking for a job later on, she accidentally sent out her BS resume to quite a few potential employers with ‘paranormal investigator’ and ‘first female astronaut’ as her skills/achievements. They never called her.
4/28. Working at a job placement agency, I have seen every terrible resume ever.
But my favorite resume of all had just 1 line in his skills summary: “I am relatively good at most things.”
Thats all I needed to know, kid.
5/28. Recently were interviewing for a position at my start up company. There were a bunch of applications, but one of them really stuck out with me.
In the section that said ‘Skills/ Accomplishments’, it said ‘Exotic Bird Trainer’. We asked him to send in a video with an offer for an interview (he had a good application overall), and he delivered. We received a full 10 minute video of him getting parrots to fly through several hoops and speak certain words on command.
One of the words? The name of our company.
Yeah, he got the job.
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6/28. “Giving injections to birds (medicine).”
Found it hilarious that they felt it necessary to clarify the injections were medicine, as opposed to say heroin. So bizarre.
7/28. I was interviewing someone for a position a few years ago, and his resume was nothing but famous people he had met. He got mad when I explained to him that shaking hands with John Kerry is not “an accomplishment.”
8/28. A candidate listed himself as president of the Oregon chapter of the “3rd amendment defence league.” I told him that I didn’t see many abuses of the third amendment, and he said, “then you see how successful we are…”
I was impressed.
The Third Amendment (Amendment III) to the United States Constitution places restrictions on the quartering of soldiers in private homes without the owner’s consent, forbidding the practice in peacetime.
9/28. A guy that I work with, who had no experience with the job he was going for, was asked by my boss “Why should I hire you instead of the other people who have come in here?” He replied, “Because I’m better than them.” My boss walked away into another room and laughed his head off. That guy is one of the top three workers where I work.
10/28. We were hiring for a position at my company and in the application, had a section that said “Relevant Work Experience Only”.
In this section, they put “Bovine Inseminator”. We were so curious we had to ask then what that entailed (story continued on the next page…).
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Apparently, cows rarely procreate through actually sexual intercourse, they are all artificially inseminated with the sperm of cows with really desirable genes – and this person had that job.
Was really interesting, just not sure it was exactly relevant for Accounting Consultant…
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11/28. Just a cashier. A guy with a resume came in asking for our manager who wasn’t there. The dude handed me the resume and I asked if he was looking for part time or full time, yadda yadda. He left and on his resume he included a list of vegetables he can cut, which is cool and all, but it’s a pet store.
12/28. “Good attention to deatil” was probably my favourite from the latest round of resumes I looked at.
13/28. When applying to a startup in the bay area I was in no way qualified for, I casually mentioned how I was 5th grade class president (unopposed). Though they were generally recruiting only Ivy/near Ivy kids, I did get an initial call back, something a friend from a top ranked university did not get when we both applied.
Jokes on them, I was 5th grade vice president. Screw you Brittny. Your policies sucked.
14/28. Time’s Person of the Year, 2006.
15/28. It may not count as this was clearly a joke application, but I had a girl turn in a resume which included things like, “Slew a demon with own two hands.”, “Six confirmed dragon kills to date, two more plausible but unconfirmed.”, “Proficient with siege equipment.”
I called her in for an interview just to turn the joke on her head. That didn’t work. She showed up in functional full plate, with a crusader’s tabard, and another girl acting as her squire carrying a shield, lance, and broadsword. It was hilarious!
The best part is the job was for a security guard. Unfortunately she didn’t get it. We have a military or police service time requirement and “The Order of Holy Fire” does not count.
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16/28. Direct quote “Champion of the Rock-Paper-Scissor at University”
Edit: Regarding the usefulness of this skill, he was applying for a technical development position, and did not get the job.
17/28. A friend of mines resume says “Under 10 second Rubik’s cube solve” – she has had to demonstrate it several times.
18/28. My manager at a fast food place told me that someone put down that they got level 99 in Diablo 2 hardcore. She asked me if this was impressive. I said yes.
19/28. I once took an application from a guy who, when asked if he was convicted of any felonies, wrote NO!!! in pen, circled it, underlined the circle, drew arrows to the underlined circle, and didn’t finish the rest of the application.
20/28. I interview quite frequently for technical jobs. One person wrote that he worked at BIG BOMB FIREWORKS! (the rest of the resume was capitalized normally).
Another person handed in a resume with “YES!” scrawled onto it already, in pen. Maybe he thought that one of us would assume that HR put it there, except he handed it directly to us.
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21/28. “Selected to visit Auschwitz (Nazi concentration camp)”
There was no context to this statement, but we assumed that the kid – who was still in high school – was selected by his teachers to go.
22/28. They said they volunteered at the Quidditch World Cup!
23/28. This is not an accomplishment but one time someone had a picture of Tupac on their resume.
24/28. Once in a interview, I was randomly asked for a unique talent I have. In a panic, I told them that I couldn’t sing, but would willingly sing anything in front of any audience. That’s how my interview ended with a really terrible rendition of “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor.
Got the job.
25/28. The heading on his resume read:
“Extreeemly Dedicatid” and had a couple bullet points beneath it.
One of the bullet points read:
“Cut hand at work reel bad. Sewed it back up with needle and thwead.”
Guy showed it to me after the interview and the thread was still sticking out of the healed skin. Here he had cut his hand during a lunch break while attempting to open a can of off-brand ravioli without a can opener.
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26/28. Not a hiring manager, but I once listed “Can use both hands at the same time” as one of my skills. The manager would later tell me that was why she hired me over the other applicants.
27/28. I have had people show their certificate for completing court mandated anger management class.
Like, I’m glad you did that, and you’ve come a long way, I’m sure. But I’d wait until you land the gig before bringing that stuff up.
28/29. I heard on the radio just the other day that somebody put on their resume “entertainment director at the department of justice” under employment history, which, when asked what that meant, he replied that he was in prison for X amount of years.