I enjoyed this media release I received today from employment website, CareerOne.com.au, revealing its list of top 10 interview mistakes made by job hunters.
Stating the obvious, the site’s editor Kate Southam said new job hunters must not sabotage their own success.
“Job hunting blunders get you remembered for all the wrong reasons,” she said.
CareerOne’s top 10 job hunting blunders are:
1. Spelling mistakes on a CV/cover letter.
2. Using crazy email addresses like sexylovegod@hotmail.com
3. Inventing careers and skills
4. Interrupting an interviewer to look at a text message or take a call.
5. Reeking of that last-minute cigarette as you walk into the job interview. Yuk. Overpowering colognes/perfumes are also bad form.
6. Dressing inappropriately – the way you look should match the image of the company you are interviewing with. Also, jewellery that jangles irritates interviewers.
7. Not setting up a quiet space for a phone interview. Pet noises, house mates/family asking questions or loud music in the background are interview killers.
8. Sharing too much personal information.
9. Bagging your former employer or boss.
10. Not doing your homework about the employer – and worse – calling the employer by the name of their competitor.
Angela Vithoulkas, who owns the VIVO Café franchise in Sydney, said that one candidate came in for an interview dressed in a clown costume.
“I felt like sticking a sign on my forehead saying ‘are you serious?’ It’s hard to take someone seriously when they’re dressed as a clown,” she said.
I agree with Andrew Brushfield, who said spelling mistakes on resumes is a pet hate for consultants.
“If you make errors on your application, employers assume you’ll make mistakes on the job,” he said.
#4 is the only one that actually surprises me. No common sense.
I have seen similar lists over the years, of Top 10 Interview/Resume mistakes and it never fails to amaze me some of the clearly ridiculous things people do.
Apparently, in the USA, for high-level professionals, falsely claiming that you are distantly related or somehow connected to the Kennedy family is a common lie people tell about themselves.
I’ve never lied on a resume and I’m always surprised at how common this supposedly is; I’d worry too much about being found out!
I suppose all of us have been guilty to a degree of being ‘economical with the truth’, or ‘misrepresenting the facts’, as many politicians say.
If we had a job for only a short-time before we were ‘let go’, I think most of us would omit this from our employment history on our resume.
I have done this and I don’t really class this as lying; provided you are honest if directly asked at the interview.
The biggest mistake I have ever made with regards to a job application, is once when I was applying for positions at a retail store in Mount Gambier.
I put the name of a competitior store on the cover letter!
Needless to say, I didn’t get the position.
However, I only found out about this because I knew someone who worked at the store, who’d seen my application, which was even more embarrassing!
Adam’s comment jogged a memory. I often leave off jobs I had more than ten years ago because I don’t feel the skills I had as a temp in a factory ever pertain to the jobs I am seeking now. That, and good luck getting me to remember all the details of those jobs! I am also honest about these omissions when I’m asked, but I don’t volunteer the information.
Twitter: mgorey
says:
I worked for four months at a newspaper in Alice Springs, but it’s not on my CV.
I left simply because I didn’t like living in Alice at that time (had my 21st birthday there, virtually alone).
Potential employers could be disbelieving of such a simple but true explanation.
Twitter: delmerw
says:
Many, many moons ago, my ex wife was in an interview in which the interviewer kept stressing the importance of grammar skills. My ex pointed out she felt hers were pretty good — the interviewer continued to go on about how important good grammar was — my ex finally said something like, “I’m sure good grammar is important here. By the way, ‘grammar’ is misspelled on your application.”
She got the job.