I must say I found this a little odd. Forty percent of the recruiters who were surveyed said they would not hire a candidate who had a typographical on error on his resume. In a survey of 1,000 executives, the common belief is the resume is a reflection of the candidate.
On one hand, I can understand the logic behind this opinion. If you make a mistake on your resume, of all things, then you are going to make mistakes on your job. Yes. Maybe. And certainly with a buyers market in a bad economy, and with jobs scarce, recruiters and hiring executives are certainly entitled to come up with any perception they deem accurate.
But then, working that logic, there may be highly skilled people who in our great and wonderful public school system were not the best of spellers or suffered in certain disciplines from ADD or other afflictions that may have result in typos. Meanwhile they shine in computer programming, financial analysis, or brain surgery. They excel in special skills. They are overall remarkable people with vision and insight. So they should be avoided like the plague?
And then…if having your resume typo free is truly a reflection of an extraordinary or even competent worker, they why was it that so many perfectly coiffured, flawlessly formatted, resume toting Wall Street executives ran the world’s economy right into the ground? Taking it further, if this is the mark of perfection, can we then assume that any measure of skill and ability above this will be equally flawless.
Realistically, we see them gathered at the water cooler, talking trash, distracted by the superficial and in many cases incapable of seeing how economic and professional practices would lead to an economic disaster of global proportion. We see them on the porn sites, passing via email jokes of questionable taste. We see arrogance and limited learning in narrow, pigeonholed disciplines. There is a grievous lack knowledge of history, yet alone its relationships and interpretations. We saw economic and financial models created where there was no downside. As if what goes up, basic, physics doesn’t often plummet, taking the stock market, employment and the GDP right along with it.
In all, we have seen a lot of really stupid stuff. Lack of insight. Lack of social responsibility. Lack of accountability. But it’s the typo on the resume that tells all? This is the portal of insight, determining an employment candidates ability and skill set? This is it, the typo?
No wonder right now that every economic prognosis countermands every other economic prognosis. No wonder some of the iconic American corporations have collapsed and others can’t get out of their own way. The big picture is not only lost, it is perceived only in its minutiae.
But we can take solace in one thing. There are no typos in the lame explanations that attempt to tell us why things are as bad as they are.
Check them out before you hire. But do a thorough job. and don’t get hung up on nonsense.
