Isobel Pankhurst
A horrified job hunter claims he accidentally submitted his STD test results instead of his cover letter while applying for a 'dream' job. Unsurprisingly, he was promptly rejected by the recruiter.
Jacques Paul had spent hours filling out an application for a digital marketing role and rigorously proofread it for any spelling mistakes.
But soon after the 27-year-old hit submit on his application, he 'freaked out' as he discovered to his horror that he'd accidentally attached his sexual health screening results too.
He immediately began to panic as he realised he was unable to remove the personal info without withdrawing his application, which would likely lead to him having to explain his mistake.
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He believes the employer may have thought that he submitted his negative sexually-transmitted infection results in a bid to show "here's another good thing about me - I don't have any STDs."
Luckily Jaques has since landed another job and is now sharing the hilarious story in the hope of "de-stigmatising mistakes" and tackling the stigma around sexual health.
Jacques, from Haringey, London, said: "It was horrible at the time but it's a funny story now.
"I thought 'okay, I'm good. This is a dream job, I'd really like to work here'. It was one of the big four consulting firms, it was [for] digital marketing.
"You get an email confirmation of your application and it said to log in to see the status, which I did. I wanted to make sure everything was okay.
"Then I saw the PDF of the STD results and freaked out."
Continuing his embarrassing story, Jaques says: "I put a lot of thought and time into applying for this. You have to make sure your CV is adjusted.
"You write the cover letter, I proofread everything then f***ed up at the end by uploading the wrong thing.
"I couldn't change the application and the only email that was [on the website] was IT support. I wasn't going to make it a bigger deal than it already was.
"I freaked out and just waited hoping there was a very nice, sensible human on the other side seeing it and knowing it was an honest mistake and they'd reach out for the actual cover letter.
"But that obviously did not happen. Within 72 hours I got a standard message saying they weren't proceeding with the application."
Jaques has since shared his story to TikTok, where it has racked up more than 1.1m views and 101,200 likes.
Talking about his decision to post this video he said: "It's a funny story but it's very important to destigmatise sexual health and really get people to test themselves, take care of themselves and not have it be such taboo.
"It starts a conversation. A million people have seen me talking about sexual health."
Many social media users reacted with horror at Jacques' admission - with one woman even saying she would move to another country if this happened to her.
One user said: "Omg this makes me so much better about starting mine with a typo. Thank you, you’re doing God’s work."
Another said: "I would have simply passed away."
A HR worker said: "Applicant displays impressive ability to be proactive in preventative care. Hired b***h."