Revealed: the 3 words on your resume that indicate you may be a NARCISSIST

Many job seekers spend months perfecting their resume.

But some new research may make you reassess the wording on your resume.

Researchers from the University of Mississippi have revealed the key words and phrases that indicate you may be a narcissist.

In the study, the 248 participants took the Narcissistic Personality Inventory-16 test – one of the most commonly used non-clinical personality measures for this trait.

The researchers then analyzed which key words and phrases people who scored higher on narcissism were attracted to in job postings.

The results showed that narcissists were more attracted to the term “results-oriented.”

They also leaned toward job postings that advertised “ambitious” and “compelling” applicants.

Dr. Jonathan Gay, lead author of the study, said: “That’s what you’d expect from a narcissist: to be willing to bend the rules, at least for themselves.”

Many job seekers spend months perfecting their resume. But some new research may make you reassess the wording on your resume

Previous studies have shown that narcissistic employees in the accounting field are bad news.

In fact, people who score high on this trait are more likely to engage in fraud and “earnings management,” where employees bend the rules to make companies appear better than they actually are.

“Narcissism, for whatever reason, has emerged as the dominant personality trait associated with earnings management, fraud and manipulation,” said study author Professor Scott Jackson.

“A narcissist would be more likely to become involved in serious accounting violations than someone who doesn’t have that personality trait.”

In many other companies, however, narcissists can make good employees, says Dr. Gay.

“If you want salespeople who are innovative and sell a lot of your goods, then you might need a narcissist to do that,” he explained.

‘It has been shown that managers generally have a high level of narcissism.’

In their new research, the team wanted to understand which job opportunities narcissists are most attracted to.

In addition to ‘result-oriented’, ‘ambitious’ and ‘persuasive’, the researchers also found that narcissists are attracted to ‘thinking out of the box’ and ‘creative’.

According to Professor Jackson, it is important to understand these specific words in the context of the work.

“It would be desirable for auditors to report what actually happened,” he said.

“If you’re results-oriented in an accounting environment, you might edit numbers so that the numbers represent something that didn’t happen but is desirable to report.

‘Calling someone a ‘creative accountant’ is a kind of euphemism for someone who tells accounting lies.

‘When you see a creative accountant, it is not a compliment.

“That would essentially mean that this person is willing to fudge numbers to represent what they want to see rather than what is actually there.”

Based on the findings, the researchers call on recruiters and employers to be careful with the words they use in job vacancies.

“If you want someone who is ambitious, self-reliant and maybe a little narcissistic, use this language,” Dr. Gay said.

“But if you want someone to report the most accurate view of your financial statements, not the most favorable view, then you may want to be careful about using some of these line-restricting terms in your job postings.”