8 Ways To Scare Employers Away. Is This You?

Employers can be a finicky bunch.  They can also be risk averse.  And in this economy they are being both of these in spades.  There are enough highly qualified candidates for each position to fill a large conference table.  So highly qualified is now the base expectation, right?

If you are an HR person or a direct hiring manager, you are looking for ways to filter a group of applicants.  To explore aspects of each candidate that will allow you to remove them from the active list.  You are trying to bring a qualified panel of people who can each do the job in their own individual ways.  This is one of the reasons that behavioral interviewing has become so popular.

As a job seeker, your job is to significantly limit the number of factors about you that can act as a filtering device.  This should not include misrepresenting your experience or skills to move to the top of the “qualified list”.  But it does mean this:

Don’t Be A Scarecrow

So what does that mean really?  Well, you might say, “All I’m trying to do is get an audience with people who can offer me a job.  If I have to get on all fours and howl to the moon to do that, well, call me a coyote”.

But sometimes what you do and don’t do in an effort to get attention, can often backfire.  Like a loud shot that scares birds away.

So what are 8 ways to scare employers away?

1. Get cute with your cover letter.  Cute can come in a variety of forms and few are rarely worth the risk.  Generally they look like what they are . . . a way of trying too hard to get noticed.  You can read about some of those here.
2. Show desperation.  In a prior post, I shared the perils of playing the role of the desperado.  It is a dangerous game to play as it involves exposing how much you need the job and how little else you have going on in your search.  So, please, don’t be a desperado.  Great in westerns – bad in job search.
3. Drop a resume to an employer once a week.  The old “make them say no until they say yes” approach.  Too many resumes too often are not a positive sign.  Too many phone calls?  Too many e-mails?  All convey a lack of confidence.  Look to be the pursued, not the pursuer.
4. Include (Your Last Name) & Associates Consulting Inc. as the present job on your resume.  And when asked, express enthusiasm for the independence you feel as a consultant.  Companies would like to hire people who will commit to and want to be a part of the new company for a good period of time.  The risk-averse employer will see “the independent consultant” in you as a hiring risk.  See the post here for information on how to think about consulting during job search.
5. Meander.  Are you one who likes to talk?  Afraid of a short, crisp answer?  Well, whether you realize it or not, most interviewers want a nice short answer followed up by some supportive details.  We like to hear a story, sure, but one that has a clear point and an obvious connection to the benefit.  So, if you are one who likes to talk, read this post.
6. Staying on interviews for a moment, there are a number of classic and avoidable blunders.  Study this post and, although many may seem obvious, I will tell you that I have seen them all.  Every one.  Here are some dumb things to avoid.
7. Have a cell phone message or an e-mail address that suggests something negative or unprofessional about you.  If your cell phone message includes a shout out to your brother going to college at Chico State, let’s modify it for now.  If your e-mail address is based on your nickname of “3 Beers Johnson”, I’d either get a new nickname or get a new e-mail address from Gmail.
8. Argue with the HR department.  Fiercely defend why you clearly are the most qualified for the job.  In fact, act baffled as to how, after three rounds of interviews, you were not the first offer.  Well, guess what, you are no longer in the running for a possible back-up offer.

Job search is an emotional roller coaster and none of us do it without a few mistakes.  Just please try to avoid the big and glaring ones if you can.

Our goal is to attract people to us . . . not run them off.

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