8 Reasons I'm Never Going To Hire You
I was so disappointed with the last round of job candidates that I just had to tell you why. Please share with your friends that are out there applying for jobs. It's competitive out there and fixing a few simple things will easily put them on top. 1. You Never AppliedApplying for jobs is no fun but seriously if you don't apply I'm never going to hire you. Applying doesn't mean telling a friend of my friend that you *might* be interested in talking about the position. It means actually filling out the online application completely and then following up on any mutual connections. Skipping the 10 minutes to fill out your information online forces me and my HR staff work much harder to hire you. Make it easy on us!2. You Sucked At Filling Out the ApplicationI realize filling out online applications isn't fun but you gotta do it right! Don't skip over questions. Don't screw up the grammar, spelling, or capitalization. For gosh sakes, spell and capitalize my company's name right!
3. Your Resume Is Longer Than 2 PagesI'm going to spend 8-30 seconds reading your resume before I decide if I want to speak to you. Your best qualities for this position better be darn clear within the first 5 seconds or you're not getting a call back. Remove bullet points like:
- Scheduled meetings
- Developed and maintained relationships
- Coordinated between X and Y departments
4. You Didn't Do Your Research Before The InterviewThe first question I'm going to ask you is what do you already know about my company. You better have a good answer that shows you did more than read my "about us" page. Bonus points if you relate my company's strengths to yours or actually spoke to current employees or customers.5. You Misspelled or Incorrectly Capitalized The Stuff You're Supposed To Be Expert AtYou know who knows the different between MAC and Mac or Word press and WordPress? I do, because I'm actually an expert in those skills you claim to have.6. You Negotiated On Salary Before We Offered You The JobIn a sales pitch they'll tell you everything about the product and how great it's going to make your life BEFORE they tell you how much it's going to cost you. Treat job interviews the same way. Never state the salary you expect up front. Make sure I fall in love with the idea of hiring you and how amazing you're going to make my business and then ask for a little more than I wanted to pay you. Of course if what they're offering is drastically different than what you want to make, you're wasting everyones time. However, if you're within 10-25% of what they're expecting to pay, you can probably get it if you're truly the best candidate.7. Your Email Address Is HotPants69@hotmail.comIf you're not an internet marketer, I'll forgive you for using gmail but please get firstname.lastname@gmail.com (or something very close to that). If you do claim to be a pro online anything, you better have your own domain.8. Your Online Presence Isn't PresentYou claim blogging as a skill but you haven't updated your blog since 2007. Your LinkedIn profile is half-completed and your picture is fuzzy. You tweeted twice two years ago and your icon is still the default egg. Honestly most employers aren't going to go years back into your social media accounts. If you clean up and update the last few months of posts, it'll probably be fine. If you're applying for a social media related position you should have at least two years of blog posts.Bonus! A Very Original Way to Get NoticedAlthough it won't work for all employers, Jesse Dejardins recommends an original approach to resumes.