NotJobs: How Not to Get the Recruiter to Call

Kris Dunn has a great blog at HR Capitalist. A few days ago Kris posted a take on how candidates kill their chances with voice mail. Here’s a snippet:

Press ‘1′ To Eliminate Yourself Immediately As a Candidate…

Just called a strong candidate back after a phone interview to set up a face-to-face session.  Hadn’t gotten her voice mail yet in the process.  Got it this time – BAM!!!  I’m treated to 30 seconds of a profane Notorious B.I.G track before the innocent, professional voice I was expecting comes through over the track during the chorus.  Professional position, 50-60K job.  Bye-Bye…

It would be the same deal whether it was Marilyn Manson or Larry the Cable Guy.  Market to me, the recruiter.  Don’t take risky chances with your brand when I call.

Suggestion: See the whole article:

http://www.hrcapitalist.com/2009/02/press-1-to-eliminate-yourself-immediately-as-a-candidate.html

How not to get a job…or then ridiculousness ensued

Last summer Natalie at the caution: human being blog was looking to pay good money to someone to help her. Ridiculousness ensued. She documented her frustrations with the applicants in general, and one applicant named Bacon in particular. Here are a few snippets of the conversation:

A couple months ago, I was swamped with freelance work and looking for someone to help me out by doing some work – mostly HTML and CSS. I posted an ad on Craig’s List being pretty specific about what I was looking for. I got a number of responses, most of them with truly awful web portfolios full of web sites built with table-based layouts when I had specifically asked for someone proficient in table-less layouts. Anyway, there were two or three promising prospects in the bunch, so I set about scheduling interviews with them.

Natalie tried to be reasonable with Bacon.  She asked multiple times for code samples, and after much torture, she got him to send a template which Bacon claimed he wrote on his own. When she tried to clarify, Bacon went to a bad place and copped an ego:

Bacon was apparently offended.

by the way, the spacing in the left nav is different reflecting rather or not there are sub items, so there. There is nothing wrong with it. good luck with your “company”.

“So there”?

More ridiculousness ensued. The applicant blocked her e-mails.  She gave up on him.

But then, Natalie received this e-mail:

Natalie,

Should I expect a phone conversation sometime this evening? Please keep me updated.

- Bacon

I swear I could not make this up if I tried. Now he was still expecting me to conduct the phone interview? I was so angry. I vented to a friend who pointed out that if I kept it going Bacon was just crazy enough to continue escalating the situation and driving me mad. At my wise friend’s advice I wrote Bacon:

I’ve selected the person for the position. Thank you for your interest, and good luck to you in the future.

It the hardest email I ever wrote. I typed “So there!” at the end of it, then deleted it at least twenty times before finally hitting the Send button.

See the whole thing here: How not to get a job…or then ridiculousness ensued

Liz on ‘10 Ways to Ruin a Job Interview’

On the YahooHotJobs site, 25-year HR veteran Liz Ryan provides some great advice on 10 job-interview gaffes to avoid.

1. Complaining about the parking or directions.
2. Bad-mouthing your previous job, manager, or company.
3. Digging into details off the bat.
4. Groveling.
5. Answering a question before you understand it.
6. Spacing out.
7. Slouching.
8. Cursing.
9. “Opening the kimono.”
10. Doing anything disgusting.

See her site for all the details.