Ten Reasons the Interview Process is Taking so Darn Long!

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You interviewed for that job WEEKS ago. Why is time just melting away? You haven't gotten a yes, a no, or an anything in terms of an definitive answer as to whether you're getting the job.

Ah, welcome to the world of corporate bureaucracy. Here are some reasons the interview process is taking so damn long!

1. They are interviewing more candidates. Company protocols dictate that they interview at least five candidates for every position.
2. The team is expecting a particular highly-qualified internal candidate to apply - of course, nobody's spoken to that internal candidate. The corporate culture values telepathy.
3. The hiring manager thought she knew what she wanted. Then they started interviewing, a new project came up, and now they're rethinking the job specifications.
4. Decisions move slowly at the company. The CEO also drives a Ford Pinto, describing it to his friends as "state of the art".
5. Your hiring manager contracted mononucleosis just after your interview. He's convalescing at home, watching reruns of the Golden Girls. Oh, that Blanche!
6. While all the candidates they've met have had the technical skills for the role, they're "just not feeling it" with the people they've interviewed thus far. Can't quantify it, though.
7. The CEO has decided to take a "special interest" in the role.
8. The interview team is split - half of them loved you, the other half wish you the mumps. The hiring manager is trying to build consensus.
9. Squirrel!
10. They can't make up their f*%#ing mind to save their lives. You've accepted another job.

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.

Three Compelling Reasons to Give Proper Notice when Quitting a Job

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So, you've got this written job offer in your hand. It looks great. The money's amazing, the title's great, the commute is awesome, and you want the job so bad you can taste it.

One caveat. Today's Friday, they want you to start Monday. You still work for your current employer, and the new company's demanding that you just quit your role and come over immediately. The pressure to up and leave without notice is relentless. What do you do?

The first question to ask yourself is, is this a "Once-in-a-Lifetime" situation? Here are some scenarios which might qualify:

• The President calls you personally to offer you the position of Secretary of State. Your first assignment is to host next week's nuclear nonproliferation conference.

• Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo suffers a season-ending injury. Jerry Jones needs you to step in.

• That book of dirty limericks you wrote in college has been picked up by a major publisher, with an initial run of 20 million copies and an option for a movie. Despite trying to negotiate a two week delay, the promotional tour begins next week.

• You've been cast as the next Batman.

You get the idea. When looking at the number of situations in which you would reasonably be expected to drop everything and run out the door, you should probably be able to count the total on one hand. Realistically, one finger. For 99.9999 percent of us, these situations don't exist.

Let's circle back to our scenario, where they're asking you to leave your current job without notice. What do you do?

Here's what I would do:

I would tell the company offering me the position that I would only accept the role if they allowed me to give two weeks' notice. If they balked - at all - I would decline the opportunity. They might respond with a signing bonus. As much as it hurts, I would decline the offer.

But why? Three reasons.

• For those of us not asked to play Batman in a major motion picture, all we have is our reputation. Contrary to what you may think, word can - and will - spread in the job market that you left your current employer in a bad situation by dropping them like a hot potato. It won't just be between you and your employer.

• No matter how good your performance was with your last company, burning them will leave them no option but to make sure you will never be eligible to work for them again. Should you ever apply, you'll hear those dreaded words - "Do Not Rehire" - be spoken about you.

• If the company extending you the offer demonstrates such little regard for your reputation coming in, how do you believe they will treat you once you arrive? Will they value you? Or will they toss you aside with little consideration?

I'm not naive - I understand the days of complete loyalty between employee and employer have passed. But the implicit social contract - and the professional approach - is to give two weeks' notice when leaving a position. It gives you time to make a clean hand-off of your work, and your employer an opportunity to best manage a challenging situation.

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.

Ten Great Ways to Sabotage Your Chances of Getting the Job

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Note: This is a mild rewrite of a piece which appeared a couple months ago. Enjoy!

Here are ten methods I've witnessed candidates - first-hand - employ to ensure that they do everything in their power to sabotage their chances to snag that dream job in the application and interview process.  It's so easy to throw a wrench in the works!

1. Arrive late for the interview. Don't bother to call. Then act like nothing happened.

2. 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.

3. Ask how much the job pays. Even after you've already had this discussion with the corporate recruiter. Ask everybody with whom you interview.

4. Tell the recruiter you are close friends with the CEO, when you and she met once in passing. Maybe.

5. Be friendly to everybody you meet in the company. Except to the recruiter. In that case, be a total ass.

6. Bring extra copies of your resume. Folded up into a compact square in your pocket.

7. Send a nice, thoughtful thank you note after the interviews to people you've met.  Generously sprinkle in typos and misspellings.

8. 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.

9. Leave your cell phone on. When your phone rings during the middle of the interview, casually take the call.

10. 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.