Scary Job Acquisition Mistakes
Halloween is a good day to reflect on what scares us.
Today we’ll look at five scary mistakes people make when looking for work. With us is our old friend and public relations expert Ara Chekmayan, CEO of Tactical Public Relations. Ara will show us how we can turn job seeking tricks into gainful employment treats.
Lying - The scariest thing a job seeker can do is lie, period. There is never a good time to lie. If your background is weak, if your resume shows inexperience, whatever it is, lying is not going to solve your problem. Not only will you not fool a savvy recruiter with your tall tales, you may get yourself branded as a liar.
What’s the alternative? Pick your top three weaknesses and don’t lie
about them. Instead, prepare to discuss them as virtues. If you have been a stay at home parent for
the last decade, don’t make up non-existent jobs. Explain that you are returning to the
workforce with a host of business applicable skills, that you cultivated on the
home front. Take your lemons and make
lemonade. Just do not lie.
Death by the Social Web – It would be nice to think that recruiters at companies have superhero stamina, the patience of a saint and the fair-mindedness of a world-class judge. But most human resources recruiters and people hiring for jobs are like you and me. They work long hours and juggle a tough work life with tons of responsibilities at home.
When a recruiter becomes seriously interested in you, the call of Googletm becomes irresistible. If someone is interested in you because you were a top student at your school, only to do a quick search of the web and turn up photos of you on popular social networking sites where you are guzzling beer and the people in the picture with you are half-naked, you may never get a call back. Is this fair? No, but recruiters are often pressed for time and they want to cover their own backsides. Putting inappropriate things online scares job recruiters.
Are you tweeting about drunken indiscretions? Better think twice before you do that. Bottom line, clean up your online act, as much as possible, before searching for that big job. If you put something up that won’t go away, a photo, a blog entry, etc. contact a reputable public relations firm with strong web skills and the savvy to help you.
Finished by fashion – Going for a job is not a moment of transcendental fashion exploration. It is not the time to exhibit your individuality. You want to show your individuality at work? As international authority on persuasive communications Jay Bildstein says, “Let your clothes be quiet enough to allow your competence to speak for you. Show your individuality by being more productive.”
Simply put, conform to business dress standards. Don’t dress shabbily, but do not dress like you are on the runway for Fashion Week. If you are seeking work in an office setting, the crisp blue suit, white shirt, shinned black shoes look, with a neat hairstyle and good general grooming is the way to go. It will allow you to speak for yourself and your accomplishments without prejudicing the person doing the hiring against you. Inappropriate dress can scare job recruiters into not giving you a chance.
Being a know-nothing – You go for a job interview. You desperately need to get hired. You decide you will not lie. You say to yourself, “Call me George Washington, I cannot tell a lie.” You take down the picture you have on your blog of drunken, nude, body surfing. You dress for the workplace. You practice speaking about yourself and your abilities. You think you are ready. Think again, you might be preparing to make a scary mistake.
Imagine going on a date where the only thing you do is speak about yourself. You come off like a big ball of arrogant self-love. That’s a scary turn off. Yes, on a job interview you must speak about yourself, but you must do so in the context of meeting the needs of the company where you seek employment.
If you are a know-nothing about the company you claim to want to work at, what you are really saying is, “I don’t care about you or your company; I just want work where I can find it.” People doing the hiring are not going to like that. You are going to scare them off. Instead, do your homework and learn about the company you want to work at. That shows commitment. Commitment counts.
Giving bad references – Talk about scary, this one will frighten away most human resources professionals. Imagine being asked to provide three references. They may be from former jobs, from school, from somewhere you volunteered. Hastily, you fill in the references spaces on the employment application, without thoroughly thinking things through.
When the people you listed are called, they answer with things like, “Joe who?” “Mary what-did-you-say-her-last-name was?” “Never heard of that person.” Giving references of people who don’t remember you, or are going to trash you, is a pretty sure way to scare a recruiter into going with another job candidate. Giving out bad references is like walking down the halls of a high school with a “Kick Me!” sign on your back.
Make sure you give references of people who actually know you and can legitimately speak well of you.
