If you ask a recruiter or a hiring manager about the most awful interview they've ever had, they'll be able to recall the candidate's every flaw, mistake, gaffe, and uncomfortable silence in excruciating detail. Fortunately for the candidate, they don't have physical evidence of this; they're only able pain a word picture.
No so luck with application material. The paper equivalents linger on, often becoming office jokes and can become viral within your potential employers' office. I worked for a company that would request submissions from recruiters, save the especially funny resumes, redact the confidential information and had it as part of the end of the year party.
I recall one resume, in particular that I received, which I passed onto a colleague for a chuckle. It soon got passed to her coworkers and soon several dozen people had an electronic copy.
The resume wasn't that bad. It was fairly straightforward - listed the candidate's brief work experience and was easy to follow, but she, like the rare candidate, foolishly decided to attach a headshot to the top of her resume. By chance, I clicked on the photo and noticed that it seemed to be cropped. When copied and pasted into a new document, a larger image appeared. I've edited out the candidate's head:
Reviewing resumes is pretty boring - especially when you're combing through a hundred or two a day. A surprise like this is a welcomed respite and spreads like wildfire.
Moral of the story: You want to catch the recruiter's attention, but not this way. Do yourself a favor and remove the ridiculousness from your application materials.
She didn't get the job. She didn't get an interview. But thank you, lingerie girl. You've given us some good chuckles.
