Hiring Don'ts

In my short time helping out my team with recruiting, I found some Hiring Don’ts that I wanted to share.

- Keep your resume brief, a 16 page document is a bit excessive for a resume.

- Don’t take phone calls and have the interviewer wait on you unless it is absolutely urgent.

- On your first phone interview do not ask if you can telecommute. This is could be a make it or break it question.

- Don’t show up to your job interview with your current companies’ lanyard and badge dangling around your neck. You’re going to a new company, let the old company go.

- When you receive a letter stating that you are not a match, justifying why you should be hired is ok, but DEMANDING that the employer reconsider their decision is not.

- When you receive a letter saying that you are not a match, there is no need to go through all the top companies you have been rejected from and ask for feedback why the recruiter thinks you were rejected from all of them.

- Do not justify that you are a hard worker and that you never quit because you have been laid off from every job you’ve ever had.

- When asked a technical question, answer the question, do not only tell the interviewer that he has nice handwriting.

- Placing interesting facts on your resume is great, but your gender, age and state of health is simply too much information.

- Don’t ask the recruiter multiple times what job you are interviewing for and to send the job description. Read through the mail threads and at the least what is listed in the subject line, use the search feature in your mailbox.

- Even if you run spell check, certain tools may correct inadvertently. For example MicroStrategy can become Microsurgery. Read your resume carefully.

- Do not insult the interviewer by saying he had a heavy accent when you had one as well.

- Do not e-mail the hiring manager back and say that you are “shocked” that you were rejected because you “felt” that you answered all the questions correctly. If we were on the fence about you, you are off the list completely.

- Also don’t say statements to the recruiter when you were not a match “no wonder you’ve have been looking for awhile,” companies want to hire the best folks with good attitudes as well.

- If you get rejected, pick yourself up and be professional about it. No amount of arguing is going to change the resolution, sometimes you are just not the right level or personality for the team. It happens, move on.

- Don’t say that you did not know what you were doing at your last job.

- Don’t claim to be a guru in anything unless you really are one. Chances are there is a guru in the interview chain and you may be in for a long interview.

- Do not fall asleep in the lobby of your first interview when the recruiter has been called already. Get enough rest, coffee, tea, something.

- On a phone screen, be sure to mute your phone when you are typing keywords into Wikipedia. I know you can’t stall if you are muted though, probably better to be who you are and not claim to be someone you are not.