05.29.08
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Email ThisDuring my daily dose of CNN, I stumbled upon the article “You’re Not Getting the Job - 25 Reasons Why.” Of course I had to click the link because just as unemployed individuals will click to see what they’re doing wrong, I wanted CareerBuilder’s take on why I’m not hiring. I have to say I was not all that impressed by the list. I have compiled the top 3 I agree with, the top 3 I disagree with, and three that should have been on the list but were not.
I Agree With:
- Leaving on a bad note
- Badmouthing a former boss
- Forgetting common etiquette
(Not paying attention would be at the top of my list but I have yet to have a candidate do any of the examples.)
I Disagree With:
- Dressing for the wrong job - My employees wear jeans and t-shirts when they work but I would immediately remove a candidate from the running if they showed up in such casual attire.
- Not sending a thank-you note - It’s like getting junk mail. I have enough to do that I don’t need to waste my time opening generic thank you letters from every candidate I see.
- Not asking questions - Unfortunately, my hiring managers spend much of the interview time talking, it really doesn’t surprise me when candidates are left with no questions. We’ve pretty much decided in the first 15 minutes if we want you back or not, by the time we’re done with questions we just want you out of the room so we can go on with our day.
Not on the list
- Don’t Have the Basic Qualifications - If you know I’m looking for someone with a clean driving record don’t bother to apply if your license is currently suspended. If you know I’m requiring knowledge of a specific skill, system, etc. you’re probably not going to get the job if you don’t have it.
- Being too Aggressive before the Interview - I’ve discussed this before on my blog. A perfect example from just this week: Candidate calls to return my call. I’m unavailable so he leaves a voice mail. Candidate continues to call twice more in the next hour. At this point I was purposely not taking his calls. PS. I love my receptionist.
- Want too much money - If you’re applying for an entry level job don’t expect to make +$35,000. If you’ve been applying for a while and you’re certain that your interviewing skills and resume are great then salary is what is keeping you unemployed. Remember, at some point less money is better than no money.
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8 Responses to “The Real Reasons You’re Not Getting a Job Offer”
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I totally agree with “not paying attention” as a reason people don’t get hired. I actually interviewed someone who stared out the window (really!) during the entire interview including when I was asking her direct questions.
Needless to say, she did not get hired.
I would have to say I agree with nearly everything in this summary, except one thing. I always look for a candidate who asks thoughtful questions, someone who is interviewing me and my company just as much as I am interviewing them. Asking good questions (not just a certain number) gives me insight into a candidates intellectual level and thought processes.
I just had to point out #9 about using “I” too much because this is the toughest one. You want to show companies you are there to help them, but it’s a balance because you are talking about yourself and what you have to offer. Oddly enough, this is a point they teach you in English classes. It all goes back to WIIFM–what’s in it for me? Thanks for this post, Rachel, this is really good stuff. Why wouldn’t you want your candidates to ask you questions? Wouldn’t you rather have an interested and engaged candidate instead of a bored one?
@The Office Newb - My candidates have all been good in that respect. If only they could all get the other aspects of interviewing down.
@Narmey - Asking good questions is always a plus. On the other hand asking the wrong questions can knock a candidate down very quickly. My point was that I wouldn’t discount someone for not asking any questions.
@Clara - The difference here is that you equate a bored candidate with a candidate who does not ask questions. I do not. Of course I’d rather have an interested and engaged candidate. The other thing to think about is what interests and engages them. Do you interview for an hour only to have them ask again about pay and bring up benefits? Do I really want them interested in that?
So much of this stuff is relative to the hiring manager, it shouldn’t be listed as a hard rule of thumb. It’s just like some recruiters say a resume should be 1 page and others say it should vary depending on your experience. I’ve never seen a person walk into an interview in business casual dress. I’d never do it. I’m not trying to look like the employees, I’m trying to look like a candidate and set myself apart. It shows respect, IMO, to dress in traditional interview attire. If a hiring manager rejects me only because I show up wearing a tie, then that’s a red flag and I would likely run into other silly, trivial issues with him/her once hired anyway. Maybe they’d fire me if I failed to post a Dilbert cartoon on my cube wall…
@Jason - You’re on the mark. It’s funny to me to watch a candidate that would never make it past one hiring manager get hired by another manager. It all depends on the individual.
How did I miss this post last week?
Agreed, the CB list is fairly weak. But where I differ from you, Rachel, is the “want too much money” part. How do the candidates know how much the position is for? Salary calculators are horrendous, and most job descriptions say “competitive compensation”. That’s purposely vague. My brother made $50K his first job out of college in 2000–and that’s customary these days. $35K was a benchmark in the 90s.
The reality is that it costs companies more to put someone in an interview chair than it does to give a strong candidate the extra money requested. Ding a few too many people on money and you lost that great candidate for being cheap. Managers seem to forget that a little too often. But what do they care? The candidate acquisition dollars come out of someone else’s budget. Forget you all work for the same company. Again, short-sighted and expensive.
One of the goals of springraise.com is to eliminate the opaque nature of salary negotiations and give candidates the information they need to justify salary requests. In my hiring, I’ve found that getting the right candidate saves the company more money than getting the less expensive candidate.
Rachel, do you think your approach may be a bit old school?
@Springraise - Actually, I work for a non-profit because we can’t go over budget we openly list our salary ranges and each job postings has an “up to $X.” Yet half of the people I call tell me they need a minimum that is +$5,000 over what the job is listed at. Thus pay becomes the reason they are not hired.