'It made me laugh so much I gave them an interview': 25+ Memorable resumes that made hiring managers stop in their tracks

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Dec 12, 2024 11:00 AM EST

If you can't be the best at what you do, you should at least be interesting enough to catch the hiring manager's attention! The people replying to this person's question certainly did that. U/ThanosIsMyRealFather was curious about the things that hiring managers saw on resumes, and wanted to know what things made them want to immediately hire someone, or instantly throw that resume in the garbage. 

Trying to hire the right person really can feel like you're searching for a needle in a haystack. Hiring managers might have to read dozens of resumes, set up numerous interviews, and then have meetings with their colleagues to ensure they've found the exact right candidate. It's not an easy job market right now for applicants, with some applying to hundreds of jobs before they find the right one. After reading about the funniest things these hiring managers discovered on people's resumes, you'll know exactly what not to do to get noticed. After all, catching their attention is only a good thing if they're calling you to set up an interview, not if they decide to chuck your resume in the trash. 

After that, have a giggle at the funny things these kids wrote in their college admissions essays, like one person who "wrote a 750-word admissions essay describing the smell of baked potatoes... I got in."

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    Cheezburger Image 10440291328
    via Curated Lifestyle For Unsplash+

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    Hiring managers of Reddit, what was something on someone's CV/resume that made you either immediately want to hire them or immediately reject them?
    via u/ThanosIsMyRealFather
  • 03
    dolphint Someone sent over their CV written entirely in the papyrus font from Microsoft word. May as well have gone all out and used windings.
    via u/dolphint******
  • 04
    NothingBreaking I was hiring for a very competitive IT role last year and one guy, who didn't have the best real world experience, added a single QR code at the bottom of his CV. I scanned it and it took me to an online portfolio, including a secure lab with simulations he'd ran,
    via u/NothingBreaking
  • 05
    allowing ME to test scripts. he'd written and also play around in his lab environment. Honestly, I'd never seen anything like it. The guy got the job and has continued to be a great fit.
    via u/NothingBreaking
  • 06
    JeanLafitteThe... One resume read "expert in 'indoor horticulture'..." Indoor horticulture was in quotes.
    via u/JeanLafitteTheSecond
  • 07
    darthnut I received a resume from an applicant that included a letter of recommendation from his cat. The letter was hilarious and signed with a clipart paw print. I thought it was great and wanted to bring him in, but the manager for the position wasn't as crazy about it. I
    via u/darthnut
  • 08
    guess the point is, humor in an application can work for you, but it really depends on the person.
    via u/darthnut
  • 09
    Justme124 Second language was Klingon. Too bad the guy was a total a during his interview
    via u/Justme124
  • 10
    [deleted] A guy put his bench, squat and deadlift numbers in his personal skills section for a bar job. It spawned a long tradition of asking bartenders what they could bench when they applied for a job.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 11
    2243217910346 Hiring for retail. Two all time favorites: "Experienced at stalking the cooler." "Responsible for closing paperwork after each sh..."
    via u/2243217910346
  • 12
    EatMoarToads Hiring a software engineer. Among his impressive list of skills were Notepad and Wordpad.
    via u/EatMoarToads
  • 13
    Nichinungas "I would like to work at your factory" I don't have a factory. Read the description. job
    via u/Nichinungas
  • 14
    B... I had one application dropped off by the applicant's mother. She told me "If you hire him, you probably shouldn't trust him with money." *update edit: I threw the application away after she turned around. I was hiring for a sales clerk position at my family bakery.
    via u/Barzilla1911
  • 15
    L... I had a candidate who worked in couseling in the past, mostly with kids who had been through trauma. They had a line on their resume that said: "Expert in child kidnapping"
    via u/Leiawen
  • 16
    I had to at least give them an interview because I understood the intent but the wording was just hilariously unfortunate. Edit: For those seeking clarity, he was an expert in kidnapping cases. No, he didn't get the job. Nice guy, but not a good fit for the role. :)
    via u/Leiawen
  • 17
    OkButHurry Guy submitted a resume claiming to be a 'ghost writer' for a local college. In lieu of a college degree, he listed the units he wrote assignments for and the average grades his clients got.
    via u/OkButHurry
  • 18
    free112701 A guy was said we had to hire him because he had a disability and it would be discrimination if we didn't. He wasn't hired, he called the CEO a few times to complain. We went thru it at least 3 x over the course of multiple hirings.
    via u/free112701
  • 19
    Leucippus1 We used to do this, we would reject on a faux pas. Then we realized we were chewing through good candidates who didn't have the money to use a professional writing service. If we are hiring for a developmental role (someone we expect needs to grow) then we shouldn't hold them to the standard we would expect after they
    via u/Leucippus1
  • 20
    have developed. We decided to start picking resume's for experience we think we want and ignore minor mistakes or odd formatting choices. We have even re- interviewed people who we think just had an 'off' day. Now, we have to do this because qualified candidates for our positions are fairly rare so we have to be a little more flexible.
    via u/Leucippus1
  • 21
    M.. I work at an Escape Room. We once received a resume that consisted in a webpage address protected by a password, and three well- crafted riddles that we had to solve to get the password. We spent an hour doing it with two colleagues, and it included decrypting a code from a specific frame of Zodiac by David Fincher. It was simply amazing.
    via u/Maximelene
  • 22
    Sadly, we weren't hiring at the time, and she had found another job we we started hiring again.
    via u/Maximelene
  • 23
    Z... It was 14 pages... ETA: finance position with 5- 10 years experience. There's only so many different ways you can describe finance responsibilities - and summarizing is a skill. Dude never pitched for the interview.
    via u/zenaide1
  • 24
    Burner7788 I got my first IT job because I put in additional skills modifying Fallout 3 using GECK. I just loaded custom packs and got them to work and they gave me the job miraculously even tho I was underqualified
    via u/Burner7788
  • 25
    4sOfCors "I have incredible attention to dealtail"
    via u/4sOfCors
  • 26
    jaynus006 Bad emails. When interviewing for a professional position and your contact email is 69SMOKAHGURL420BLAZI NG it a terrible way to start the resume.
    via u/jaynus006
  • 27
    ValvetThunder21 Not a hiring manager, but for years I was applying for jobs with a high school qualification for art & design listed as and design Got 2 jobs in that time and countless rejections.
    via u/ValvetThunder21
  • 28
    razamatazie Had someone apply for our position that was a hairdresser. The position was for a nurse. They said they wanted to "try out the medical field" They didn't get the job.
    via u/razamatazie
  • 29
    ScoutManDan I once saw under Achievements on a CV- "former worlds youngest person." It made me laugh so much I gave them an interview. In the end they didn't sell themselves well enough to get the role, but it brightened my morning of filtering.
    via u/ScoutManDan
  • 30
    ReadWriteSign Not so much the content of the application, but what was on the application. A handprint. It was for a food handling position and he was grungy enough to leave a print from where he held down the paper to write on it. Instant no. Looking back, yeah, there was a chance he'd
    via u/ReadWriteSign
  • 31
    have been fine, we could have taught proper hand washing and all that, but at the time we declined to grant an interview.
    via u/ReadWriteSign
  • 32
    Aglet94 Every referee has a sentence or two about how we shouldn't call them because they 'parted on bad terms' or it had been a while. Some applicants listed referees who, when called, barely remembered working with the person.
    via u/Aglet94
  • 33
    molly120919 I once received a resume written in a size 60 font. It was just one page..
    via u/molly120919
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    hytes0000 I was interviewing people for an IT company. Dude put experience with "skuzzy" on his resume. (For non techies, SCSI is a type of hard drive pronounced as he wrote it but never in a million years written that way.)
    via u/hytes0000
  • 35
    jinxed_jukebox not a hiring manager, but I was working at a job and my roommate wanted to apply. on the application he wrote "can make 3 minute ramen in 2:50" he got the interview
    via u/jinxed_jukebox
  • 36
    mizboring I was on a hiring committee for a college instructor. The candidate was asked to provide a statement of commitment to the college and its mission. An entire paragraph was plagiarized - copied and pasted from a website. I noticed that the
    via u/mizboring
  • 37
    writer's voice drastically changed, so I pasted a sentence into Google and immediately found the source. He did not get an interview.
    via u/mizboring
  • 38
    GO_Zark I was an AV Engineering Team Lead for a startup for a time. A couple of years ago, I was hiring to fill about 30 slots of a very basic AV tech position. I had about 20 applicants at the time, so if you were reasonably competent, you were in. I got one resume and cover letter through our website from a guy who I will
    via u/GO_Zark
  • 39
    henceforth refer to as "the f up". Every third word on this thing was spelled incorrectly, punctuation was optional, and spacing was randomized. Thinking "This can't be real", I called one of the guy's references. Oh boy, did I ever get an earful from a grumpy business owner. The f up in question was so much of a f up that he was applying for positions in my
    via u/GO_Zark
  • 40
    area because he was effectively blacklisted from just about every job site and labor company in his hometown - a medium sized US city with a very, very large audiovisual job market.
    via u/GO_Zark
  • 41
    The reference told me that he'd told the f up not to hand his name/number out as a reference because the f up had caused more than $200,000 of damages. to the reference's company's equipment the previous year. He went on to name, correctly and from memory, the other references that the f tup likely listed on his resume - friendly competition of the reference - and told me that
    via u/GO_Zark
  • 42
    they would all say the same thing. So I called around. The f up is apparently quite the liability. We did not end up hiring the f up, but I made some new business friends in another city. We've since collaborated on a couple of larger conference gigs that hit their city first and then our city afterwards so... Thanks, F up.
    via u/GO_Zark
  • 43
    S... Recruiter here. I have a few: • Resume - "hire me lol" • Video interview with another candidate, she was in a hospital bed and just gave birth to her son prior to her interview. HIRED
    via u/samsamich
  • 44
    • Another video interview, the guy was chugging a tall boy Coors Lights... Edit: Just to add little to the second story, she was looking for additional income for her move. It was a part-time, temporary job with very easy work. She was a very bubbly person.
    via u/samsamich
  • 45
    C.. Had a kid applying to work at a Sam Goody as a stockboy write that he was a petroleum transference engineer for Exxon at his last job. His job was pumping gas, I hired him on the spot.
    via u/Canadian_Neckbeard
  • 46
    VIDGuide Had a résumé come in from a guy we fired about 2 years previously. Had a gap in his employment where the time was he had been with us, so not even like he didn't realise!
    via u/VIDGuide
  • 47
    AMonkeyAndAL... A few years ago I bought an already working franchise location in the next town over, which is a very small and quiet town. The previous owner let go his employee with a severance so I didn't have to take over her contract. Being my new and only store, I decided to work by myself until getting settled and hire help if I seemed to need it.
    via u/AMonkeyAndALavaLamp
  • 48
    The first day I opened the store, about an hour after opening, the former employee comes by to introduce herself and drop a resume. I tell her that I'll consider it since she worked there for about 5 years mostly on her own (previous owner was not a hands-on boss) and put it in a drawer. During the rest of the day, I noticed people standing on the sidewalk looking in, and after doing that they came in
    via u/AMonkeyAndALavaLamp
  • 49
    and made a purchase. After 4 or 5 people did this, I asked a woman what made her look before coming in, and she said "oh I wouldn't have come in if that red- headed c**t was still working here".
    via u/AMonkeyAndALavaLamp
  • 50
    Needless to say, I put a "under new management" sign on the door, using the back of the c**t's CV and no one else looked before coming in that day :-D
    via u/AMonkeyAndALavaLamp
  • 51
    Im_dad_serious Not a hiring manager but I once wrote stuff like 'able to plug in USB on first try' and 'can do up to 10 push-up before going into sleep mode' in the Additional Skills section. They later told me I was invited because they wanted to see if I really can do the first one.
    via u/Im_dad_serious
  • 52
    SimpleResearc... Someone had spelled "of" incorrectly on their entire CV. "Ov" I almost wanted to interview them just to see how they remembered to breathe
    via u/SimpleResearcher
  • 53
    MyAntipodeanF... I know a guy who put that he had a black belt in full contact Origami
    via u/MyAntipodeanFriend
  • 54
    expectopatronu... I've seen resumes that DIDN'T HAVE A NAME ON THEM.
    via u/expectopatronum43
  • 55
    backfoot For the love of god, triple check the spelling of any names. The number of CV's that simply go straight into the bin because they can't spell my, or my company name correctly is too high.
    via u/backfoot
  • 56
    lurker65431 Someone sent us a 20 minute long video why they wanted to work with us. Not hired, just too much. Another applicant explained her family situation honestly in the cover letter, she fit our culture, and as well as amazing skills, we hired her.
    via u/lurker65431
  • 57
    debunkerFL I once rejected a candidate because she dotted her "i" with little hearts
    via u/debunkerFL
  • 58
    chasm_of_sarc... I helped a buddy revise his resume. I formatted it and organized it, but I left some spots bolded and told him he had to fill them out. Under one of his jobs I said "add some bulls with fancy adjectives here". He didn't revise the resume and applied to a ton of jobs with that line left in there. I have never laughed so hard.
    via u/chasm_of_sarcasm

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