Did he really know 12 languages? I’m sure he didn’t know the well enough to put them on his resume. At least, that was my impression.

What was an otherwise stellar candidate with great referrals left me wondering if he put them just because he read an article about them, or did a report in school on each of them.

It was enough of a red flag for me, though, and (a) I didn’t hire him, and (b) he is “the resume” that I always remember in discussions like this!

I bet every hiring manager has a resume that they can’t forget!

This resume had a picture on the first page of this person, as they looked in a tux, on what was clearly a cruise liner.

Now, to be quite honest, I can’t think of many good reasons to put a picture on your professional resume, and I can’t think of any reason it would be appropriate for a software engineer.

Next, he had his title as “Senior Visual Basic Engineer”

By the way, this was an application for a Java position. In fact, had the rest of this resume been glowing, this would have been enough to disqualify the person in question without even a second glance.

Now, I believe that as a Senior Software Engineer you should be qualified to make technology decisions. Knowing how to find the right tool for the job. Understanding different architectures, frameworks, and languages even if you’re not versed in using them directly.

Other than the *picture*, this was the first statement on this person’s resume, and it says “I think I’m highly skilled at this very specific thing, but I lack broader knowledge about other things, which I really should know by now because I’m using the title senior”

Finally, Visual Basic is a tool for developing rapid and simple to medium complexity desktop applications. It’s not the tool to use for building frameworks, complex server side apps, and more enterprise-esque applications, and I would hope that by the time a software engineer feels they can add senior to their resume, that they would have developed a few of these things.

At the end of this story:
1) Know what you’re applying for. This person clearly didn’t, and it caused a chuckle
2) Know what qualifications you have, and tune your resume to match. This person clearly didn’t, and it caused laughter.
3) Know what statements, intentional and implied you’re making about yourself. This person clearly didn’t and it caused people to bust a gut laughing at this particular resume.

Even years later, I remember these things about this resume; which is saying something, however I’m guessing that the person in question would rather I not remember the things about this resume that I do.

What things on your resume will you be remembered for?

At the same time, it’s a little sad, too. Here’s hoping those people aren’t still looking with the same resume.

-Chuck
http://www.ihateyourjob.com

PS I feel you on the resume recreation. That’s a real nuisance when you want to be focusing on other aspects of your job search.