Here follows some ways I've seen candidates employ to ensure that you do everything in your power to sabotage your chances to snag that dream job in the application and interview process. I have seen these all first-hand. And they're easy!
- Arrive late for the interview. Don't bother to call. Then act like nothing happened.
- Learn nothing about the company in advance of your interview. Then, when asked by your interviewer "What do you know about us," make something up.
- Ask how much the job pays. Even after you've already had this discussion with the company recruiter. Ask everybody with whom you interview.
- Tell the recruiter you are close friends with the CEO, when maybe you met once in passing. Maybe.
- Be friendly to everybody you meet in the company. Except for the recruiter. In that case, be a total ass to them.
- Bring extra copies of your resume. Folded up into squares in your pocket.
- Send a nice, thoughtful thank you note after the interviews to people with whom you've met. Include typos and misspellings.
- Guess at your prior dates of employment on the job application. Go ahead, just guess. That way, when the company gets ready to hire you and runs the pre-employment background check, nothing adds up and you get disqualified for dishonesty.
- Leave your phone on. Casually take a call when your phone rings during the interview.
- Use your referral network to do everything possible to get in the door with the company. Make sure you ask an executive to sponsor you and they use every bit of their personal equity to push you through and get you an offer in another department. Then, AFTER you've received and accepted the offer, make your resume live and searchable on the job boards the company subscribes to, like Monster, so that the recruiter can stumble across it and inform the executive about it.
Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. He is a Human Resources professional and staffing expert with almost two decades of in-house corporate HR and staffing firm experience, and is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC).
Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.
