| Dear Steve and Jon, I saw one of you balled up in laughter as you described one after another, amusing things you had seen in resumes. What is the most outlandish or just plain stupid thing you have seen? Signed: Don't Do This |
Dear Don't, For once, I am speechless -- my mind is reeling! I have a file of the most outlandish resumes, and I wish I could share them all with you. Some are downright scary, like the one wrapped in aluminum foil, with a note saying that spies are trying to read his mail. Then there are the ones with self-pictures: I especially remember the Mississippi belle in front of a magnolia tree with a bloom over her shoulder, and the military sergeant in full battle fatigues just back from the field -- that one still haunts me. Maybe Jon and I will publish a book of these! |
Dear Don't, Beyond the many misspelled words and statements that just did not make sense, I have actually had two entire resumes written in poetry (I would call them iambic pentameter but I do not know what that means) and I have received one that was entirely in cartoon format. One resume I judged as outlandish was the resume of a fashion designer and sent to me by mistake. It broke all of my up tight rules with its colored and scented outer envelope and paper, pictures, drawings and fancy scrolled lettering. However, if you think about the intended audience, it was probably a very effective marketing tool for that industry, and that is what a resume is intended to be. |