In 2007, Lindsay Mustain was working as a recruiter at Comcast looking to fill a fairly entry level call center role. The job attracted "a variety of level of candidates," she says, adding that "sometimes you get some really interesting ones."
As she was rifling through resumes, one in particular caught Mustain's eye. "I honestly have no idea what he was doing," says the former Amazon recruiter and now CEO of talent development company Talent Paradigm about the candidate. It "shocked me."
The first two pages of this candidate's resume were pretty standard, says Mustain, who is all for a two-page resume in general. "Two pages is the right number," she says, because recruiters will take the time to look through them.
The third page of his resume, however, is what took her by surprise. "The very last page was a picture, a full-blown picture of him holding a shotgun."
The photo looked like an old-school selfie taken with a flip phone, says Mustain. The shotgun was not aimed at the camera, the candidate was simply holding it. Still, she thought, "what would go through your mind to think that this is an acceptable piece?"
"It just blew us away," she says.
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'They have no idea about true business standards'
There were several things wrong with this person's material.
To begin with, "unless you're a model or a real estate agent, I recommend you not put a photo on your resume," says Mustain.
Beyond that, Mustain says, including a weapon in your photo is extremely off-putting. "Honestly with a person like that," she says, "I would not want to be associated with him because they feel like they're a danger."
Even if you're applying for a job in which you'd be expected to use a firearm, most employers will want proof of training on it, not a photo of you holding it.
Bottom line, including a photo of yourself in a resume, especially a highly inappropriate one, reflects poorly on your judgment. That person is "unequivocally communicating they have no idea about true business standards of what is acceptable behavior," Mustain says.
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.
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