Self-Defeating Job-Search Moves to Avoid

by Liz Ryan

The desperate post-interview phone call, the proclamation of self-doubt, and more blundering ways to negate your chances of winning the job

Despite the healing economy, employers are often slow to post openings and make hiring decisions. It's a frustrating situation that can cause eager job candidates to act in counterproductive ways, scotching promising opportunities. Here's our list of 10 real-life job-search misfires we hope will serve as cautionary tales for job-hunters. Don't replicate these counterproductive deeds.

Inflicting Gratuitous Interrogation

I was reviewing résumés and found one that stood out in a positive way. I e-mailed the sender and asked whether he had a minute to talk by phone. "I might," he wrote back. "Where is the company located, what is the starting salary, who is the CEO, and how long have you been in business?" That was the end of the correspondence; our street address was on our home page, the salary was listed in the job ad, and the company story (including inception date and leadership bios) was in the About Us section of our site. In his haste to make sure his time wasn't wasted—a reasonable goal, in my opinion—the gentleman asked me to answer four questions he'd have already had answers to if he'd done a bit of homework. Lesson: It's perfectly fine to guard against time-sucking or even bogus job ads, but do it in such a way that you don't shoot yourself in the foot.

Forgetting Who You're Interviewing With

The executive director of a small not-for-profit shared this tale with me. "I miraculously got enough money from my board to hire a marketing director last year," she said. "I was over the moon. I had one precious job opening to fill. I interviewed five people, three of them from industry and two from the not-for-profit world. One of the industry folks was super-smart and insightful. Sadly, she knocked herself out of the running about halfway through the interview." "How?" I wanted to know. "I asked her to tell me one story that illustrated how she rolls. I told her to think about our five-person agency and what we need in marketing, and tell me a story from her career that would make it clear she belongs here. She told me a story about a 24-month intranet development project involving 60 people across functions and six or seven levels of organizational sign-offs. I was nearly asleep by the time she finished. I think this lady really needs a big company atmosphere." The job-seeker's intranet story screamed "I don't understand scrappy not-for-profits at all." Lesson: In your written job-search communications and especially on an interview, keep your stories and questions relevant to the hiring manager's issues.

Selling Yourself Short

A friend at a placement agency told me this story. Last summer she had a candidate on the short list of two finalists for a plum sales management job. She'd just gotten off the phone with the hiring manager, who said, "I have to sleep on it, but I think your guy Frank is getting the job tomorrow," when Frank himself called her. "Don't be mad at me," Frank said. "Oh, no," said the agent. "What did you do, Frank?" Frank had gotten fearful and had called the hiring manager to say, "If you don't want me in the sales manager spot, I'll take a sales territory assignment." The manager hired him into the territory job and hired the other finalist for the sales management job. The placement agency lady never told Frank how close he'd come to the higher-paying, bigger job. Lesson: Stay the course. You'll never show an employer what you're worth, or persuade them they need you, by groveling.

Letting Minor Adversity Vanquish You

"I am so frustrated with my job search," said a man I met at the library. "I had an interview last week, and when I got there at 20 after 5, the front door was locked," he said. "Did you go around to the back?" I asked. "Did you call or text HR or the hiring manager?" "No, I went home," said the gentleman. "When I got home, there was a message telling me the front door would be locked and I should go around, but I had left home before that message arrived." "Did you reschedule?" I asked him. "No, I figured the opportunity was lost." "Call them!" I said. He did, but they'd filled the job already. Lesson: Corporate hiring types are no different from anyone else; they make mistakes. On one job interview back in my 20s, I walked around the whole building looking for an open door for a 5:30 interview, and I finally walked across the loading dock to get in. Show your resourcefulness by rolling with the interview punches.

Sending a Generic Thank-You

I interviewed a brilliant young man for a business development role. "Look, Barry," I said. "I want to make sure we're on the same page. Over the next couple of days, send me an e-mail message and tell me what you heard today. It doesn't need to be long. Just write a couple of paragraphs about what you see as our competitive situation and how you'd approach the assignment so that I know we'd be in sync." Barry happily agreed. An hour later, I got the generic post-interview thank-you e-mail from Barry, saying, "Dear Ms. Ryan, Thank you so much for chatting with me today. I'm excited about working for your company and know I'll do a great job." Today we would call that an epic fail in the showing-comprehension department. Lesson: Whether the hiring manager asks you to, or not, make sure your post-interview thank-you recaps the conversation in an intelligent way, pointing out what the company is up against and how you're equipped to tackle those challenges.

Offering a (Doubly) Misguided Information Packet

A reader called me for advice, saying, "I'm targeting a product manager opening at Company X. I'm going to a trade show where they'll be exhibiting." We talked about visiting the company's booth and chatting up employees. A week later she called again. "I visited the booth but everyone was busy, so I left a packet for the sales manager." "Hmm, for the sales manager?" I asked. I thought about a sales manager's likely level of interest in a non-sales employee's job-search packet dropped off during a chaotic trade show. What was in the packet? "I left him a note with an article I wrote for an industry journal several years ago," she said. "Was the article about Company X?" I asked. "No," she said, "it was a story about software documentation." Unfortunately, Company X is not a software company. Busy working people are deluged with information. Job-search overtures need to be specific. My caller could have gotten her hiring manager's name via a short conversation if she'd stuck around that booth until the trade show crew had a minute to chat. The unrelated article didn't help her case and was likely tossed in the recycling bin. Lesson: Your target person is the hiring manager. Other, random people in the organization typically don't make great conduits unless they're friends of yours. And whatever materials you send must make it clear what you want and why anyone should care.

Frantically Self-Doubting 

The CEO of a tech startup called me. "What about this?" he said. "I ran an ad, and a lady wrote right back to me with a great e-mail message. I replied to say, 'I'd love to talk when you have time.' She wrote back to tell me that she's not all that technical, and I replied to her saying that we need more than just technical people. She wrote again to make sure I knew that she's really not all that technical. By this time I was trying to figure out why she responded to the ad at all, but her résumé was great, so I said, 'Let's just get together and take it from there.' Then she wrote back to ask me if there were going to be technical tests during the interview. We don't use anything like that, but I had lost faith at that point and gave up. Please tell your readers to go with the flow. There's no point in acing yourself out of job opportunities because you fear you might get tossed out at some later point in the process." Lesson: Work the process. At a minimum, you'll make valuable contacts, learn some new things, practice your interviewing skills, and give yourself a reason to get dressed up.

Surrendering to Salary Worries

"I got a call for a job interview, but I didn't go," said Samantha, a woman I chatted with at a networking event. "Oh, why's that?" I asked. "They told me not to come in if I need to earn more than $75K, and I'm really focusing on jobs that pay $80K and up," she said. "Seriously?" I asked. "You skipped the interview over that $5K gap? Are you being overwhelmed with interest from employers?" "Heck no," she said. "I haven't had an interview in months, but I figured I'd hold out for the number." If Samantha had gone to the interview and started a conversation, she could have learned enough about the organization and its issues to talk them into another $5K in base or bonus or some other valuable exchange medium. Lesson: When you're invited to a reasonable job interview, go! If it doesn't sound perfect at first hearing, that's O.K. Life is long, and priorities and investment levels turn on a dime. You'll never know if you don't show up.

Saying Yes to an Illogical Request

A client of mine, Maurice, wrote to me, dejected. "I should have taken a stronger stance," he said. "What happened, Mo?" I asked him. "This corporate recruiter called and talked to me for an hour, and I guess I passed through that gate O.K.," he said. "She called me back and asked me to write a marketing plan for the company. I haven't even met those people yet. I went crazy and wrote a 20-page marketing plan and sent it to her. Then, radio silence for three weeks." Maurice fell into the trap called Give Them Exactly What They Ask For, No Questions Asked. You'll never show your value that way. A generic marketing plan is almost useless, and a thoughtful, customized one requires collaboration with the client. Trying so hard to please, especially in the early stages of the selection pipeline, is a bad strategy. Lesson: When you're asked to deliver X, Y, or Z during a job search, remember that you're an important part of the equation. Maurice could have said, "It would be irresponsible of me to write a marketing plan with so little information about the business, and apart from that it wouldn't be fair to the people who have paid me for marketing plans in the past. Let's set up a time for me to talk with the marketing VP and discuss her marketing-plan needs then."

Utterly Failing to Prepare

I interviewed an editor candidate who said, "I think I could really help you." "Marvelous!" I said. "How? Where could our publication improve?" "You mean your publication specifically?" she said. "You got me there. I didn't actually look at it. I'm not a reader." Lesson: Don't apply for jobs that don't interest you.

Business Etiquette You Should Know

By Susan Bryant, Monster Contributing Writer

What's the difference between the rising star whose career is picking up speed and his counterpart who can't seem to get the engine to turn over? Often, the star has mastered the nuances of business etiquette -- the subtle but critical behaviors that can make or break an important meeting, influence a first impression or impress a potential client.

According to Hilka Klinkenberg, director of Etiquette International, a business etiquette firm, the basics of professional etiquette are really quite simple. First, understand the difference between business etiquette and social etiquette. Business etiquette is genderless. For example, the traditional chivalrous etiquette of holding the door open for a woman is not necessary in the workplace and can even have the unintended effect of offending her. In the work environment, men and women are peers.

Second, your guiding principle should always be to treat people with consideration and respect. Although this may seem obvious, Klinkenberg cites this basic decency as a frequent casualty in today's workplace.

Here are a few of the specific dos and don'ts of business etiquette you are likely to encounter during your workday.

Introductions

The proper way to make an introduction is to introduce a lower-ranking person to a higher-ranking person. For example, if your CEO is Mrs. Jones and you are introducing administrative assistant Jane Smith to her, the correct introduction would be "Mrs. Jones, I'd like you to meet Jane Smith." If you forget a person's name while making an introduction, don't panic. Proceed with the introduction with a statement such as, "I'm sorry, your name has just slipped my mind." Omitting an introduction is a bigger faux pas than salvaging a botched introduction.

Handshakes

The physical connection you make when shaking hands with someone can leave a powerful impression. When someone's handshake is unpleasant in any way, we often associate negative character traits with that person. A firm handshake made with direct eye contact sets the stage for a positive encounter.

Women take note: To avoid any confusion during an introduction, always extend your hand when greeting someone. Remember, men and women are equals in the workplace.

Electronic Etiquette

Email, faxes, conference calls and cell phones can create a veritable landmine of professional etiquette. Just because you have the capability to reach someone 24/7, it doesn't mean you should.

Email is so prevalent in many of today's companies that the transmission of jokes, spam and personal notes often constitute more of the messages employees receive than actual work-related material. Remember that your email messages are an example of your professional correspondence. Professional correspondence does not include smiley faces or similar emoticons.

Faxes should always include your contact information, date and number of pages included. They should not be sent unsolicited -- they waste the other person's paper and tie up the lines.

Conference-call etiquette entails introducing all the participants at the beginning of the call so everyone knows who is in attendance. Since you're not able to see other participants' body language and nonverbal clues, you will have to compensate for this disadvantage by communicating very clearly. Be aware of unintentionally interrupting someone or failing to address or include attendees because you can't see them. And finally, don't put anyone on speakerphone until you have asked permission to do so.

Cellphones can be a lifesaver for many professionals. Unfortunately, if you are using a cell, you are most likely outside your office and may be preoccupied with driving, catching a flight or some other activity. Be sensitive to the fact that your listener may not be interested in a play-by-play of traffic or the other events you are experiencing during your call.

Even if you have impeccable social graces, you will inevitably have a professional blunder at some point. When this happens, Klinkenberg offers this advice: Apologize sincerely without gushing or being too effusive. State your apology like you mean it, and then move on. Making too big an issue of your mistake only magnifies the damage and makes the recipient more uncomfortable.

13 Ways Your Resume Can Say 'I'm Unprofessional'

Hiring pros share the faux pas they find in real resumes, including wacky e-mail addresses, defunct phone numbers and cookie-cutter templates.

By Lisa Vaas

No offense, thebigcheese@domain.com, but if nobody has told you yet, we’re telling you now: That e-mail address is not making you look particularly professional.

Unprofessional e-mail addresses are just one way of sending hiring managers the wrong message. If you want to be taken seriously when you apply for jobs, you need to put some polish on your resume, your cover letter and everything contained therein. Hiring professionals repeatedly run across these red flags that scream “unprofessional.” A number of recruiters and HR managers shared with TheLadders common errors from their own professional experiences.

1. Random/cute/shared e-mail accounts

E-mail accounts are free. There’s no reason not to sign up for your own. Yet many mid-career professionals share an e-mail account with a significant other or the entire family, generating addresses such as dickandjane@domain.com or thesmiths@domain.com. Also stay away from cutesy addresses. After all, butterfliesaremyfriend2010@domain.com, you can always share your admiration of Lepidoptera with colleagues after you’ve been hired. Ditto for offensive, flirtatious or sexual e-mail addresses.

Think we’re exaggerating? These are actual e-mail accounts cited by Jillian Zavitz, who’s responsible for hiring as the programs manager for TalktoCanada.com, an online English language-training course based in Canada. (We’ve changed the domain names to protect the innocent.)

Instead, adopt an address that incorporates the name you use professionally on your resume and cover letter.

2. Failure to proofread

Deidre Pannazzo, executive director at Inspired Resumes, said it’s “amazing” how many people submit resumes that contain “numerous typos and misspellings.” Even better than spell check, she said, is to have a friend review the document for you.

“Make sure your dates are consistent, and that you don't confuse your story with overlapping time lines,” she said. (For an in-depth look at how to tackle proofreading your resume, click here.)

3. Bikini pictures

Resume experts advise against attaching pictures or any image files to a resume. They can “choke” an applicant tracking system (ATS), the software that automatically scans and parses resumes. (Click here for an in-depth look at how your resume is handled by technology after you press submit.) In addition, hiring professionals warn against giving anyone a reason to prejudge and form a negative opinion based on your appearance. Indeed, some HR departments will immediately discard resumes with photos to avoid any possible accusations of discrimination on this basis.

But still applicants send photos. Most troublesome of all, said Zavitz, are the beach shots. “(No) pictures where you are in a bikini at the beach (real story, and it wasn't a flattering picture either) or at a New Year’s party with your friends (obviously drunk). Not cool.”

4. Unprofessional voicemail

If your resume is strong enough to convince the recruiter or hiring manager to reach for the telephone, be sure what he finds at the other end of the line represents you in the best light – that means your voicemail or whoever might answer the phone.

Marlane Perry, managing director of the Executive Search Division of Magill Associates, said she is unimpressed when a phone number on a resume leads her to an unprofessional recorded voicemail or a conversation with a third party who can’t be trusted to take a message. “If you don't trust your roommates to answer the phone and take a decent message, then only list your cell phone,” she said.

5. Lazy words, ‛etc.’

Perry said that use of “etc.” on a resume is a sign of laziness: The job seeker obviously “can't even take the time to list out all of [his] duties.” She has seen the error on both junior- and executive-level resumes. Another no-no is saying "same as above" anywhere on a resume. “If you had similar job functions at your last two jobs, summarize the responsibilities and then bullet out some of your accomplishments,” she suggested.

6. Cookie-cutter resumes

Samantha Goldberg is a celebrity event designer and TV personality who’s always looking for employees for administrative duties or to help plan an event. She said she often reviews resumes and cover letters that aren’t even vaguely customized for her business.

“It’s more like ‛Mad Libs’ — they just fill in our name as they send them off!” she said. “Just once, I would love to have them describe me on the cover letter instead of saying that they respect my career status and have been following my career.”

On many occasions, Goldberg said, she specifically lists a prerequisite of at least three years’ experience with planning events that does not include friends, family or applicants’ own weddings. “They obviously don’t read my prerequisites and send an e-mail stating that even though they haven’t orchestrated events for anyone they have always been told they should be in the industry if I would just give them a chance.”

7. Everything but the kitchen sink

“I don't care, nor have time, to read about your life story,” Zavitz said. “If you can't whittle your resume down to a page or two at max, I will not read it. If it's not related [to the job or your work history], don't include it.”

8-13 ad infinitum...

Larry Lambeth, president of Employment Screening Services Inc., which helps companies review job applicants, offered a laundry list of professional gaffes he’s seen on resumes and job applications:

• Listing a spouse as a reference
• Not spelling out the name of an employer or school (“LSU” instead of “Louisiana State University” or “ZDE” instead of “Ziff Davis Enterprise”)
• Not providing a city or state for an employer or school
• Omitting the area code from a phone number for a reference or employer
• Providing only a first name for a supervisor or reference
• Including phone numbers that are no longer in service for references or employers

Is Hoarding Hurting Your Employees’ Careers?

Being perceived as a hoarder may cost workers a promotion, new CareerBuilder survey shows

By: Mary Lorenz

It may get you a cameo on a TLC reality show, but hoarding don’t do nothing for your career, y’all.

A new, very scientific survey by CareerBuilder shows hoarding can have a negative impact on your career.  Nearly three-in-ten (28 percent) employers say they are less likely to promote someone who has a disorganized or messy work space.

This doesn’t bode well for the 33 percent of workers – men and women equally – who say they tend to be hoarders. And even though companies have shifted to a more digital workplace, more than half of workers (51 percent) say they still have paper files in their office/desk.

But let’s back up a touch, shall we? What exactly makes someone a hoarder? Survey says…

• 38 percent say that, currently, between 50 to 100 percent of their desk surface is covered with work and other materials, while 16 percent of workers said 75 percent or more of their desk is covered. For shame!!
• 36 percent of workers say they have paper files from more than a year ago, 13 percent have files that are five years or older and six percent have files dating back more than 10 years. Heathens.

Is it really that big a deal? Well, yes, according to the survey. It seems employers don’t think any more of hoarders than they do of tattooed employees.

Nearly two-in-five employers (38 percent) say piles of paper covering a desk negatively impacted their perception of that person; 27 percent feel they are disorganized, while 16 percent say they are just messy.

Public service announcement: If you or someone you know is a hoarder, there IS help.

Rosemary Haefner, CareerBuilder’s Vice President of Human Resources, offers the following tips to get your work area organized:

• Schedule time with the office recycle bin –Set a calendar reminder for Friday afternoon to take completed projects to the recycle bin.

• Work on one project at a time – While you may have 20 things on your “to do” list, prioritize what needs to be done that day when you arrive at work and take care of one project at a time.

• Don’t be a digital hoarder – Just because nobody else can see your clutter, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, especially in your email boxes. Delete unneeded emails on a weekly basis.

Are You Emotionally Tone-Deaf?

By Barbara Reinhold, Monster Contributing Writer

There's a reason women get such good press for their abilities to manage complex relationships at work, and hence for their skills as managers. Women tend to tune in to what people around them are feeling and experiencing, thus making communications and collaborations go more smoothly. This is not to suggest that meetings ought to be therapy sessions, but rather that unless the emotional issues in interactions are understood, they'll surely derail your best efforts.

Obviously, not all women are adept at reading emotions. And of course not all men are deficient in this area. But regardless of your gender, it's important to know whether you're getting the emotional signals around you or whether you're manifesting a degree of tone deafness in this regard. This will be impossible to figure out on your own, so you'll need to enlist the cooperation of one or more people at home or work to help you gauge your ability to perceive the emotional tenor of various interactions. Once you know what's going on, you can make moves to acknowledge and/or work around the land mines.

Practice is a key part of this. After every meeting or social interaction, write down the names of the people in the room, and try to attach an adjective or phrase to that person's demeanor. For example, "Jack was angry today; Myron was sad about something; Gail was anxious." Then check your perception with someone else who was in the room. Perhaps you and your consultant will disagree. ("No, I don't think Jack was angry. I think he was feeling out of his depth and needed more information. He came across as frustrated and angry, though.") What a difference that awareness would make in designing an effective intervention. Does Jack need you to find out what he's mad at, or does Jack need reassurance that this material is hard to get at first and that you'll be happy to work with him on it?

This task of learning to incorporate emotional acuity into your workplace tool kit will take some time, so don't get impatient with yourself. Working in an emotionally aware way is actually a three-step process:

·   Read the emotional signals correctly.

·   Make a gesture that shows you understand what someone's feeling. For example, say, "I know you've been working hard on this project, but there are still some problems we need to address."

·   Frame solutions that the individual or individuals will be able to take in and work with.

For example, if your assistant is someone who values relationships more than results and you're a results-oriented person, you could give a lecture on the fact that work is work in this deadline-driven environment and relationships have to come later. Or you could join with him and say something like, "I know it's important for you to feel a sense of camaraderie as you work, but it will be better for all of us if we try to be really focused on the project at hand now to meet this deadline by 4 p.m., and then take time at the end of the day to relax a little together."

But the very first step to all of this is becoming aware of the emotional agendas we all have. That's your homework. Be brave enough to ask some people who know you and will be honest with you about how well you seem to read emotional signals. Ask them for some examples they might remember of times when you missed something. Then hook up with some folks you think are good at reading the signals and ask them to help you learn to do it, too. You won't be sorry, and neither will your boss and direct reports.