Many job hunters will spend months perfecting their CV.
But a new study may have you reassessing the wording on your resume.
Researchers from the University of Mississippi have revealed the key words and phrases that indicate you might be a narcissist.
In the study, the 248 participants took the Narcissistic Personality Inventory-16 test – one of the most widely used nonclinical personality measures for the trait.
The researchers then analysed which key words and phrases people who scored higher in narcissism were drawn to in job postings.
The results revealed that narcissists were more drawn to the phrase ‘results-oriented’.
They also veered towards job postings that advertised for ‘ambitious’ and ‘persuasive’ applicants.
Dr Jonathan Gay, lead author of the study, said: ‘That’s what you would expect a narcissist to do—be willing to bend the rules, at least for themselves.’
Scientists have revealed the three words and phrases on your CV that indicate you might be a narcissist (stock image)
Many job hunters will spend months perfecting their CV. But a new study may have you reassessing the wording on your resume
Previous studies have shown that in the accounting field, narcissistic employees are bad news.
In fact, people who score highly for the trait are more likely to engage in fraud and ‘earnings management’, which is when employees bend rules to make businesses seem to perform better than they actually do.
‘Narcissism, for whatever reason, has proven to be the dominant personality trait that is associated with earnings management, fraud and manipulation,’ said Professor Scott Jackson, an author of the study.
‘A narcissist would be more likely to get entangled in serious accounting infractions than someone who doesn’t have that personality trait.’
However, in many other businesses, narcissists can be good hires, according to Dr Gay.
‘If you want salesmen that are going to go be innovative and sell a bunch of your goods, you may want a narcissist for that,’ he explained.
‘It’s been shown that executives are typically high in narcissism.’
In their new study, the team set out to understand which job postings narcissists are most attracted to.
Aside from ‘results-oriented’, ‘ambitious’ and ‘persuasive’, the researchers also found that narcissists are attracted to ‘thinking out the box’, and ‘creative’.
According to Professor Jackson, it’s important to understand these particular words in the context of the job.
‘It would be desirable if accountants report what really happened,’ he said.
‘If you’re results-oriented in an accounting setting, you might doctor numbers so that the numbers represent something that didn’t happen but is desirable to report.
‘Calling someone a “creative accountant” is kind of a euphemism for someone who tells accounting fibs.
‘When you see a creative accountant, that wouldn’t be a compliment.
‘That would basically say this person is willing to distort numbers in order to report what they want to see instead of what’s actually there.’
Based on the findings, the researchers are calling on recruiters and employers to be careful with the words they use on job postings.
‘If you want somebody who is going to be ambitious and self-reliant and maybe a little narcissistic, then include this language,’ Dr Gay said.
‘But if you want somebody that’s going to report the most accurate representation of your financial statements, not the most favorable representation, then you might want to be cautious about using some of these rule-bender terms in your job listings.’
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