We did try to get intelligent people
Wavy lines back 15 years or so.

I used to work in a directory enquiry call centre. Some time before, the bean counters realised that reducing the pay bill looked good in the accounts, so they allowed lots of experienced people to take voluntary redundancy and replaced them with agency staff. The money we paid the agency was accounted for elsewhere and the shareholders were happy. The customers and the remaining staff, not so much.

Unfortunately, the area of the country we were in had a generally low level of academic achievement and the agency struggled to find candidates who had the necessary spelling and geography knowledge to pass the entrance tests, so we were always short-staffed.

The test results for the latest batch of candidates were given to us on a Wednesday and we began to look forward to their arrival as it often caused much-needed amusement.

The geography test consisted of a map of the UK on which dots were drawn on the sites of about a dozen major towns and cities. Alongside the map was a list of those cities and all the candidates had to do was put the right name next to the right dot.

Over the course of a couple of soul-destroying years of this, I discovered that Dover is in Devon, Bristol is in Scotland and Edinburgh is the major city on the River Thames.

Spelling was another shocker, particularly from the uni students coming for summer work. I can understand some of the younger applicants not knowing how to spell mortgage if they've never had one, but national? (e.g. nasionel) Barclays? (Barklaze) and so on.

Apologies for length of preamble.
( Snappyuk gets BIGGER with free sample., Wed 24 Mar 2010, 13:08, 8 replies)

That riles me something rotten
when someone over the age of 14 or so have trouble with their spelling. My mate's a teacher at Sixth Form college and finds it most annoying.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Wed 24 Mar 2010, 13:14, closed)

HAHAHAHA your friend is a teacher
you know you are old when you have teachers as friends, I only have teachers in the family (that is acceptable)
(TwinkleFuckingToes Has a ingrown toe nail, Wed 24 Mar 2010, 13:26, closed)

HAHAHAHAHA
You're a twat
(oball needs Satan more than he needs me, Wed 24 Mar 2010, 14:54, closed)

HAHAHAHA
you suck magenta cocks
(TwinkleFuckingToes Has a ingrown toe nail, Thu 25 Mar 2010, 9:12, closed)

Barclaze.....?
I can haz bankz accownt pleez ? I haz munny.

Cretins. I refuse to employ anyone that has even one typo on their CV.

I do know that my son and his little chums are told in school that presentation and spelling are not important enough to affect the marks they receive! Nothing like an incentive to improve standards, eh?

Oh, and have a click for surviving.
( number5 has been fighting tramps and losing., Wed 24 Mar 2010, 16:11, closed)

I applaud you
As an employer, you are absolutely correct to disregard CVs with mistakes.

Not only is lack of spelling ability a sign of stupidity from someone who should know better - but even if it's just a simple typo (like "teh" or something), that just means the person doesn't care enough about attention to detail, and didn't bother to proof-read the CV before sending it.
(EuroSong I love horse meat: best of all the animals, Wed 24 Mar 2010, 21:56, closed)

Best mistake I've seen on a CV
is "I'm a good worker with great attention to detail, a good work-ethic, a can-do attitude and great attention to detail"
( Pretender, Wed 24 Mar 2010, 22:21, closed)

Or indeed to have spell-checked the damned thing

( shinyshinyscalp less a man, more a way of life, Thu 25 Mar 2010, 12:50, closed)