Unemployment is high.  The job market is competitive.  Millions of people are out of work and competing for the few jobs that are out there.   Yet, some employers can’t find good people.  This situation actually hasn’t changed in the past 20 years.  I have heard the complaint for years from business owners and now I’m one of them.

We have been looking for people for one division since September 2009.   We were doing our searching via personal contacts and networks.  From these referrals, we talked to quite a few people and decided that the fit was not good.  The ones that we liked and were interested went through our screening process and left us with 0 (zero).  That’s right zero candidate.   Right now, we have one possible left.  We like him but are not sure he will pass the entire screening process.

In addition, we recently advertised via multiple sources including LinkedIn job boards, city boards, job forums, networking forums, Craigslist, and other advertising outlets.   So far, we haven’t interview anyone from the advertising sources because the resumes have ranged from terrible to so so.

Oops - Broken Egg by Paleotic

Here’s a few tips to looking good for an employer when you are searching for a professional office position.   These are some of the mistakes that immediately disqualified someone based on what we’ve seen from job hunters recently.

RESUME and COVER LETTER

• Spelling errors – Please use the spell checker available in Word or any word processing program.  It automatically highlights badly spelled words with a red squiggly line underneath that word.   Make the .005 second effort to right click and fix your spelling.  Spell check can be wrong.  About a quarter of the resumes had a misspelled word somewhere.  If you’ve been job searching for a while and your resume still has mistakes, that’s a red flag for any positions requiring detailed work.  Next, have an English teacher or someone else proofread it.

• Make an effort to present your skills – There were resumes with copy and paste of the identical phrases (including numbers) for every single position for 15- 25 years.   The applicants were vice presidents and assistant vice presidents who made over $100,000 a year.   In looking at the resume, we can only assume 1) the applicants were lazy (no effort to write the resume) or 2) they accomplished absolutely nothing in their careers 3) why would they move from firm to firm to do the same exact job.

• Present who you are and what you did – Some resume were so sparse that we have no clue what they did job wise.  Titles alone doesn’t really bring out what you do.  A resume is the first opportunity that we have to understand your qualifications.

• Leave your sorority or fraternity out - It’s the real world now.  You graduated years ago.  Don’t put your college fraternity or sorority in especially since it is the only non work information.  If you are truly philanthropic and are active in the community then put that in.  Leave college behind.

• Overwhelming amount of information – We appreciate getting more information to process but a multi pages (over 2 pages) resume is just too much when you are reviewing hundreds of resumes.   Keep in mind the human factor and burn out by your reader.

• Arrogance - We appreciate and look for confidence but……  When your very first sentence of a cover letter screams arrogance, it doesn’t appeal to most employers.   When the intent is coming across as “I will deign to consider your company once I decide if the jobs you have to offer is up to my standard”, we’ll pass and gladly admit that we’re not good enough for you to consider working for us.  (This was the actual sample of one real email that we received without any resume.)

• What did you actually do at your previous job? – Some descriptions are so oblique that it looks like lawyers wrote them.   We don’t want to pay an attorney to decipher a resume.

• What did your company do? – With so many firms out of business and weird made up names, it’s hard to tell what the company actually did.  Be helpful and let us know with a sentence or two.  Note that this may not be a popular option.  Check with a recruiter or specialized resume writers or reference sources.  This is our pet peeve.

• Read the instructions – We requested that resumes be sent to one designated person with a bold email and name.  I got 50% of the resumes landing in my mailbox.  These got harsher scrutiny because the applicant already demonstrated that they didn’t read and cannot follow simple instructions.  Strike 1.  What else would they miss when they start working?

INTERVIEW

• Dress professionally – The interviewer may dress casually but you can’t.   Flip flops, not shaving, and shorts are appropriate for certain types of industry but not all.  Think about where you plan to work and what sort of image you want to set for your first meeting.

• Don’t talk on the phone – it’s rude

• Don’t text – Yes, we can see your muscles bunching and hear the clicking especially on a Blackberry, even if you don’t look down.

• Show up on time – It’s the mark of a professional and shows respect.

We’re not choosy but it’s been hard to find these qualities:

• Positive outlook
• Honesty
• Enthusiasm
• Willingness to work hard
• Integrity
• Humility
• Willingness to learn
• Open mindedness

What we screened for:

• Drug use

• Background check – know the industry you are applying to.  If you have a record, don’t apply to the finance industry.

• Lawsuits and complaints – Be upfront about these.  It’s not like we can’t find out after you walk out the door.

• Embellishments – We need to be able to trust you.

The tips above are from an employer’s perspective.  If you value yourself professionally, then treat your job hunt as a job.  Invest in yourself.  Write an excellent resume.   Get people to review and critique it.   Accept criticism gracefully and with an open mind.

The best advice is to think from an employer’s point of view.  Visualize how you would act and react if you were hiring for that position.  The higher the position and salary that you are aiming for, the less room there is for errors.   After all, in a courtroom arguing the merit of a case or making an investment recommendation, there is no second chance if you did not do your homework.  Little errors matter a lot for some industry.

Readers:  If you are hiring, what are some big mistakes by applicants that turn you off?

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photo credit: Paleotic