Red Flags Recruiters Find On Resumes That Ruin Candidates' Chances

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mattstaff
Apr 25, 2021 11:00 PM EDT

Recruiters are in the positions that they are because they've been professionally trained to sift through the patches of candidates that are doing whatever they can to separate themselves from the rest of the pack through vivid descriptions of their professional exploits, and occasional fabrications to make their lives seem that much grander. So, if you find yourself realizing that you've been employing some of the deceptive resume tactics present in this AskReddit thread, it might be time to rethink the strategy. 

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  • 01
    Rectangle - nickram81 · 3h Dude put on his resume "CCNA -1" under certifications. The CCNA is a Cisco network certification. During the interview I asked what the -1 meant. He said "oh I missed the certification by only one question". I asked how we could verify that, he sort of shrugged. G Reply 4 551 3 ...
    via r/AskReddit
  • 02
    Font - Chiyogbar · 3h I once read one of someone who claimed to have a Sicology degree from the university I had attended. Since it was several states away, this stuck out. Since he didn't know how to spell Psychology, I obviously knew he was lying but it was open panel interviews so I spoke with him face to face anyway. The look of shock and terror in his eyes when I said I was thrilled to see that we were alums from the same place and started discussing details of campus was kind of fun to wit
    via r/AskReddit
  • 03
    Font - h4lfaxa • 1h Just last month I was hiring a receptionist team lead for a clinic and one of our candidates spent a good quarter of a page telling us about his boxing career, including statistics that meant absolutely nothing to me G Reply 1 77 3 ...
    via r/AskReddit
  • 04
    Organism - NewMexicoJoe • 1h Five years worth of graphic design experience, but no portfolio because of a crashed hard drive. This was before cloud backups were much a thing. Rest of the story - I rolled the dice, gave them a chance because all of the other applicants were terrible, and they were one of my best hires. G Reply 4 20 3 ...
    via r/AskReddit
  • 05
    Font - fastrthnu • 7h Would never hire anyone that puts a space before a question mark. G Reply 1 221 3 ...
    via r/AskReddit
  • 06
    Font - Neromei • 3h I was helping recruiting a new dev but there was this one guy who was selected for the interview that I did not see (was checked by other team members). Alright, so far so good. It was strange that he went straight to the interview without doing a task first but they said he was VERY experienced so alright. He went to the interview and in the end the boss (who didn't knew anything about code) was incredibly amazed. I think I never saw him that amazed at any other professional
    via r/AskReddit
  • 07
    Font - Nothing_ • 1h I had a resume once where a guy had obviously just copy and pasted job descriptions as his work history. It was blatantly obvious because everything was in third person, guy didn't even take the time to edit it. "Candidate will be able to" type wording. I gave him an interview and asked him tough questions based off of his supposed work experience. I was morbidly curious if he was just bad at writing resumes or just a lazy liar. Turns out he was the latter. When I interview
    via r/AskReddit
  • 08
    Font - Raspberry_Sweaty • 2h Not doing any hiring/recruiting now, but when I did, a big red flag was when someone had a string of brief jobs, especially if they were all in the same field. If someone was young and worked six months at Big Hamburger and six months at Amusement Park X before entering the field, no big deal. If someone over 25 had a resume with every other mental health provider in the area and didn't make it any any of those agencies, it was an indicator that they wouldn't be a go
    via r/AskReddit
  • 09
    Font - dietderpsy · 1h A looooot of people put projects on their CV that they have never built. G Reply ...
    via r/AskReddit
  • 10
    Font - GeoffwithaGeee · 7h Describing job duties/experiences differently than the resume. eg. Resume says you were a manager of a store, but you recite a story about being a cashier. not being able to give any real-life examples, and just use hypotheticals. eg. "tell us about a time you dealt with an angry customer" and the answering being something vague and generic. Gaps between jobs can be a red flag in general - but sometimes that can be missed during a screening process. G Reply 80 ...
    via r/AskReddit
  • 11
    Font - OneMorePotion • 3h Make sure you send the right CV. I've seen an application to a senior position where the guy wrote something like "I would be the perfect fit for the position at <insert company name here> because..." Only problem was, the company name was not our. In fact, it was our biggest "competitor". (Well, not really. We knew he applied there as well but we didn't expect him to make such a crucial mistake.) He didn't get the job. We didn't even invite him. Considering the fact th
    via r/AskReddit
  • 12
    Font - tamlynn88 · 3h I don't think many candidates realize that most companies have some sort of an applicant tracking system so the new application with a completely different resume will land in the same candidate profile as the older ones. I've seen more candidates that I can count that have a completely different resume depending on the position. Also a Linkedln profile with different experience than the resume. My personal favourite was the resume that plagiarized the job description that
    via r/AskReddit

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