Many high schools offer an Internship class to students during their senior year. Students spend two, sometimes more, hours each day with lawyers, accountants, teachers, physical therapists, veterinarians, decorators or another professional in a career in which they are interested. If a student determines the career choice is one that doesn’t interest him, then he’s (his parents?) saved a great deal of money in college. If it does prove to be of interest, then the student generally pursues the curriculum with greater passion.
Years ago, I taught an Internship class and, in preparing to do so, had to spend hours during the summer shadowing some of the places/people where our interns would be assigned. One of the employers shared information that I continue to repeat to my students every year even though I no longer teach the internship class.
He told me that he will not hire anyone who does not correctly spell a word that is already on the job application. “If a person can’t pay attention to detail on the job application, how can I expect attention to detail on the job itself?”
Last night, I tripped across this site, 150 Funniest Resume Mistakes. Are they funny? Yes, depending on which side of the resume you happen to be on. What’s not so funny is that some of the mistakes were due to any one of the number of errors I ask my students to pay attention to every year.
So, here’s evidence that there’s something worse than not passing English…it’s not getting hired.
(I’ve included a few here. You can click on the link for the rest.)
From Resume Hell:
- “Career break in 1999 to renovate my horse”
- “1990 – 1997: Stewardess – Royal Air Force”
- Hobbies: “enjoy cooking Chinese and Italians”
- “Service for old man to check they are still alive or not.”
From Ask Annie’s article about resume blunders:
From HotJobs’ Real-life Resume Blunders to Avoid:
- “I often use a laptap.”
- “Able to say the ABCs backward in under five seconds.”
- “I am a wedge with a sponge taped to it. My purpose is to wedge myself into someone’s door to absorb as much as possible.”
From Fortune Magazine via HumorMatters.com:
- “Finished eighth in my class of ten.”
- “Received a plague for Salesperson of the Year.”
- “Reason for leaving last job: maturity leave.”
- “Failed bar exam with relatively high grades.”
- “Am a perfectionist and rarely if if ever forget details.”
- “It’s best for employers that I not work with people.”
- “Let’s meet, so you can ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ over my experience.”
- “I have an excellent track record, although I am not a horse.”
Read more at: http://jobmob.co.il/blog/funniest-resume-mistakes/#ixzz0uktzq4Ev
