Job seekers in Australia might be jeopardizing their chances of landing their ideal positions by listing unnecessary hobbies or personal details like their date of birth on their resumes, a recruitment expert cautions.
Tammie Ballis, a consultant based in Sydney and head of Realistic Careers, has highlighted some of the most unusual resumes she encountered while recruiting for a customer service position.
She described a particularly baffling CV, noting, “There were no contact details, no job titles, no dates of employment.” This was just one example from her candidate search.
Ballis recounted another resume that used images rather than words to denote skills, such as a picture of a paper for administration and music notes for musical skills. “Your resume should be written in clear English, without images. This isn’t a primary school project,” she advised.
One applicant made the mistake of including their date of birth, which Ballis urged against. She also noted a peculiar hobby listed by a 40-year-old man: playing Minecraft.
Highlighting potential misinterpretations, Ballis added, “This could be perceived negatively. My hiring manager, who is a mother, questioned why a 40-year-old would list Minecraft as a hobby.”
‘Nothing wrong with playing Minecraft. There’s nothing wrong with gaming, but keep it professional. I’m not suggesting anything sinister here, but someone might take it the wrong way. Play it safe and take your hobbies off your resume.’
The gaming community was quick to accuse Ms Ballis of being judgemental, but she doubled down, telling the Daily Mail that mentioning hobbies can be misinterpreted.
Consultant Tammie Ballis (pictured) said that highlighting a desire to work remotely can also be a red flag to some hiring managers
A recruiter has criticised Aussies who use unprofessional fonts and pictures to describe things in their CVs (a rendering of a poor example is pictured)
‘To the everyday person who isn’t a gamer (such as the hiring manager), she didn’t understand,’ Ms Ballis said.
‘But the reason my video went viral was because people in the gaming community thought it was normal when it’s absolutely not.
‘And that might be the reason why you miss out on a job opportunity, even though it is 100 per cent innocent.’
She added that highlighting a desire to work remotely can also be a red flag.
‘What they don’t understand is that this is a turn-off for employers, because it only looks like you’re going to apply for this job because it’s got flexible working arrangements,’ Ms Ballis said.
‘If it doesn’t have flexible working arrangements, it looks like you’re going to ask for work from home – so it’s even worse if the job advertisement doesn’t mention it.
‘With the petrol crisis going on, the work from home conversation is starting up again in the media, but still, stay away from it.’
Ms Ballis said she had seen dozens of poorly formatted CVs over the years, including one that was 12 pages long.
The recruiter shared her top tips for presenting an organised resume to prospective employers.
She also said people shouldn’t list hobbies on CVs as they can be misinterpreted (another rendering of a CV displaying hobbies and interests)
‘For someone listing their experience, it comes first on the page,’ she said.
‘Font size should be either 11 or 12, in Arial or Calibri, something modern – and make it one or two pages.’
‘(Recruiters) are looking for your job titles and if you don’t have a title similar to the job you’re applying for, you’re not going to get it because you don’t have the experience. It’s literally that simple.’
