Resumes with typos – big deal or not?

Resumes with typos

I received a great resume yesterday of a senior level candidate whose background and current company aligns very well against our role. The issue was that there were 2 obvious typos in the resume.  Some of my fellow execs say it is no big deal, others say we reject immediately. What do you think?

This has been a tricky issue as long as I’ve been in the business.  While I’ll share my point of view with you, I know that there will be a highly compelling counter-argument.  Like all difficult business decisions, you need to consider all angles, and make a decision that you and your team fully accept.

My personal view is to not move forward with the candidate.  There are many reasons for this, but two stand out in my mind:

You want senior people with high attention to detail – the resume is typically the first work product you have seen from an individual and the resume portrays a story as to how the individual organizes his/her thoughts and how the person markets that story.   A typo in the resume begs the question “will the individual send materials from our company that contain errors?”   

You want senior leaders who collaborate – rarely have I seen executives who have not reviewed their draft with other colleagues or search professionals.  Executives use their connections to improve the overall product.  My guess is that this individual did not collaborate with others to refine the final product – that is a red flag to me.
I know that you have high expectations of your senior team.  If you do take a next step with the candidate, just pay close attention during the process to see if this was a one-off misstep or an indicator of potentially larger issues & concerns.