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I recently completed an intern search to fill two intern positions for the Colorado Children’s Immunization Coalition. One of the first round candidates wrote a blog entry about his interview. While he didn’t send this to me directly, it was tagged in my daily Google Alert for my company’s name and he did post it on Facebook which we are friends on:
To Write or Not To Write – What a Dumb Question
Brazen tactic, which I appreciate, but honestly I wish he would have taken it further. This can be an incredibly powerful tactic to make sure your name stays on top of the list of candidates or it can back-fire. Here are some tips on how make your extra credit assignment work.
1.Pay attention to the little things and please spell my last name correctly – Yep, he dropped the d in my last name. More than that make absolutely SURE it’s a showing of 150% of your effort with perfect grammar and spelling.
2. Make this “value added” to your resume and interview – If you are taking the time to do extra work, make it be extra. Take this as an opportunity to share more about your passion for the job. Add more information that you didn’t get to in the interview. Link to additional work to make it an added value experience for your hiring manger.
3. Avoid publishing the interview questions or other tests – Sharing the interview questions will most likely make your new hiring manager wonder if you can keep corporate secrets. This also gives other interview candidates a possible unfair advantage. Essentially, you are letting your competition know what to prepare for. There is plenty more to your resume and professional experience to fill a blog post without divulging secrets.
4. Ask for the job – This is one of your last opportunities to stand out. Make sure you say how excited you are about the opportunity.
5. Address that this will be read by your hiring manager – It can be at the very end, but point out that this is a job hunting tactic so the hiring manager doesn’t feel like they are stalking you.
6. If you don’t want your hiring manager to read it, don’t post it – ‘nuf said!
Just FYI, this candidate did not get the position, but I did appreciate his extra effort.
So, what do you think? Am I a stalker for reading his blog entry? Did he do a better job than I’m giving him credit for? Am I a total jerk for publishing this public critique of his work? Let me know what you think!
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Comments
08.31.09
One of the first things I learned while I was at my internship was how quickly and easily I was able to discover blog posts about clients. Part of my job was monitoring feeds, and I was amazed by the things some people were writing. Knowing that companies monitor blog feeds, I am all the more careful what I write in my blog.
Thank you for this post.
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