Competition in the jobs market is ferocious, so today’s applicants must attempt to stand out. However, it now transpires, not too much. Online debate has been raging over one employment hopeful’s decision to list “olive oil” as an interest on their CV, after an anonymous account on social media claimed that doing so had blown the applicant’s chance of an interview.
In their eyes, this failure of judgment in providing an acceptable interest was a dealbreaker. It spoke completely to the prospective candidate’s character, and it had nothing good to say there. It rendered everything else on the page moot.
Harsh, or fair? Is it even the olive oil that’s the problem, or just that they chose to include it? I wonder whether AI wrote the CV and, if it did, whether word will now spread among the next generation that it’s a false friend when attempting to get your foot on the career ladder. Maybe olive oil has accidentally saved all our livelihoods.
Oil-gate does raise the question: what interests should you put on your résumé? Especially as everybody is well aware that such claims are probably all lies, apart from socialising and reading (AKA drinking and doomscrolling.) The hard truth is that what you should declare probably depends on something even the most thorough job hunter can’t know: exactly who will see your CV. The nugget you believe makes you uniquely interesting can provoke unanticipated negative feelings, as has been seen.
One person’s trash is another’s treasure; one person’s outrage at your condiment appreciation is another’s personal passion that will gain you the advantage of instant kindred spiritship. But going hard with olive oil may lead to going home without an interview, and by the time you discover that they’ve reacted in a balsamic manner, it will be too late. Socialising and reading it is, then.
• Polly Hudson is a freelance writer
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