Industry humor and fun

7 of the Most Outrageous (and Clever) Lines Applicants Have Included in Their Resumes

Applying for a job is a serious process. Real money is on the line. Highly coveted positions are at stake. People try their hardest to put their absolute best face forward, by speaking as professionally as possible and nailing the firm handshake.

Which is precisely why, when someone puts something outrageous on a resume, it’s just that much more funny. It acts as a proverbial needle, popping the tension and stiffness out of the job application balloon, and often causing delight (or at least a chuckle of disbelief).

In the seven following cases shared on Quora, the applicant understood that dynamic and decided to have a bit of fun with it. Rather than go the traditional professional route, they added a little bit of spice to their resume, and provided a welcomed respite from the serious work of hiring in the process.

1. The applicant who was his own biggest cheerleader

Shared by Shruthi Nambiar

One applicant named Eric included precisely one reference on his resume. It read:

“Reference: Eric. Who better to tell you about me than… me. Holla!”

2. The applicant who flouted a prestigious, if not particularly unique, honor

Shared by Anirudh Wodeyar

On one resume, in the accomplishment section, an applicant put Time Magazine Person of the Year, 2006 (shared). Prestigious, right?

Well, maybe not so much. That year, Time Magazine named “You” the person of the year, as in everybody. The idea was that with the predominance of social media and wikis like Wikipedia, the individual was more empowered than ever before.

So, technically, the applicant was correct. But, then again, maybe it wasn’t as great of an accomplishment as it might have seemed.

3. The one applicant who really got Christopher Nolan

Shared by Subhojit Sarkar

One applicant put “understanding Interstellar” – as in, understanding the plot of the Christopher Nolan movie Interstellar (which had perhaps one of the worst endings in history, by the way, but that’s another story) ­– as a skill in their resume. Now, if they said they fully got Memento and Inception the first time they saw it as well, they probably would have gotten hired on the spot.

4. The heroic gamer who amazingly had time to apply for the job

Shared by Sriram Ilango

People love to hire candidates who overcome obstacles, and this applicant decided to play off of that. Under achievements, he wrote how he maintained a strong GPA throughout his entire college career ­– despite logging over 3,000 hours playing a soccer video game.

Now that’s an accomplishment.

5. The applicant who was also an incredibly effective eater

Shared by Mark Slack

One candidate, under skills, wrote “always uses just the right amount of salt, no matter the shaker.”

Impressive, particularly considering the wide range and styles of saltshakers.

6. The applicant who was a gentleman at work, but Celine Dion in the bathroom

Shared by Rajat Vashishta

The interest section is often a source of, well, great interest. And one applicant, a recent graduate in computer science, was no different.

Under interests, he wrote “bathroom singing.” Unfortunately, he wouldn’t sing in the interview, preferring to keep it exclusively to the shower.

7. The one candidate who mastered the art of the food metaphor

Shared by Vijay Kalangi

This one isn’t really even outrageous, just an apt metaphor that made me hungry.

The applicant for a software developer position wanted to show how versatile he could be. In his resume, he described himself as “boiled white rice,” because boiled white rice can be turned into lemon rice, curd rice and rice baat.

He even made a diagram showing off his “white rice” skills: knowledge of core programing concepts, database concepts, server-side programing, etc. From there, he explained how his “white rice” skills could be turned into more exotic rice dishes, such as his understanding of core programming concepts could lead to Java development, aka a “lemon rice” skill. Or how his strong grasp of database concepts could lead to PHP developer, aka a “curd rice” skill.

Needless to say, he got an interview.

* image by Sophia Hsin

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