Things that should be obvious when on a job search.

Here's an obvious one:
Have someone review your resume.
Better yet, two somebodies.
Somebodies who have a clue.

Nothing says "I do sloppy work" like misspellings and typos on a resume.

Do not write in your cover letter what great communication skills you have, but misspell the word "great" as "greet" or any other way.

Related to this, if you're going to try to be clever, and write something like "Are you looking for someone with xyz experience, who has greet communication skills."

You may want to consider that this is a question, and there should be a question mark at the end of that sentence.

Better yet, don't write something like that at all. It sounds fake, corny, and dumb.

I haven't called you, and I really don't want to, because you care so little about what you are doing that you can't spell the word great, and don't put proper punctuation after a question.
Worse, apparantly you don't think I will notice that.

If you are looking for a job, for the duration, change your voice mail greeting to something professional like...

(enunciating clearly) This is Chai Tea, please leave a message and I'll call you back as soon as I'm able.

Don't use someone elses voice, especially a voice of the opposite sex, saying something you think is funny, like "HEEEYYYYY! I'M A PARTY POOOOOOOOOPER!".........(beep)

Ditto for leaving someone singing, music, your kid, or anthing else that isn't you stating your name, and that you'll be calling back.

You know George, you would think that would be obvious.

I'm trying to set this down at an even more obvious, fundamental level.

I would rather talk to someone who doesn't even Have a resume, but who clearly listed their name, phone number, where they worked (with accurate dates) and what they did in plain simple English)

In fact, a pet peeve of mine are people who attach their resume, but think that means they don't have to fill in the on line application.

No. I want to see you do Both.

Why?

The first thing asked of you, as a potential employer, is to fill out this application.

The potential employer did not ask you to fill out the application, unless you have a resume. If you have a resume, just attach that, and don't worry about the fact you can't write a simple sentence. No one will ever know.

I know I can read your resume. I'm asking you to fill out the application, accurately, and in full, in large part to determine if you can understand and follow directions.

If you can't do the first thing I ask of you, why should I think it will be any different if you're hired.

To Employers.

You are not looking for people who have shown from their work histories they are unreliable, don't have the skills, etc.

Many of these applicant will have an entire list of reasons why this or that happened.

What makes you think this or that won't happen with you too?

If you want to "give someone another chance", be prepared to regret it.
Be prepared that this is not going to be the person who, because of this chance you are giving them, turns their life around and becomes at least acceptable.

Be prepared that they are going to behave and be the same way with you, as they have been with every other job. Remember, when they quit, or get terminated, you will now be added to the list of stories they have.

It's kinda like that expression "No matter how beautiful, sexy, charming she is, someone, somewhere is tired of her ****."

Don't worry...really....don't worry.....those people you are yearning to give yet another chance?

They will find a job.

It just won't be with you.

Make sure you have an email address that looks professional or at least neutral. There's little that screams "I'm an idiot!" more than having an email like [email protected].

Accept the fact that many employers don't communicate with job applicants anymore to acknowledge receipt of your resume or the fact that they've selected someone else after you've interviewed with them. Don't take it personally. It is the way the business culture is these days.

So that no one thinks I might be picking on those who are applying for entry level, lower level positions, people who have been educated (my god how many times does someone need to be told this) in how not to act...

Some of the most bizarre answer to questions I've asked come from people who are going to be coming into the company making $35/hr and up.

Tell me, what am I supposed to think when I ask you "Why are you thinking about making this change into this field" and I get the answer (and this is EXACTLY what was said to me by one of those $35/hr and up people earlier in the week)...

"Oh, I don't know. I guess I want to try something new"

You know, when reading other threads talking about the workplace I sometimes think I must be missing something.
But no, I don't think I am.
The people I talk to are not living in a box in the middle of the road. They make a good living, they've been to school.

These people are you neighbors, your kids friends parents, the person in the office next to you, the person you say hi to on the street. They own homes and drive nice cars. They send their kids to college, and travel to nice places on vacation.

I think that's why I get so frustrated when I read parts of threads about education, and how kids need this, that and the other.

People who were educated, had this that and the other, loving parents, read books, participate in sports and are interested in politics...

All these advantages resulted in them saying "I don't know, I guess I just wanted to try something new"

I know, I just KNOW I'll have some people saying, or at least thinking, that I'm wrong.

I'm not, they are out there. They are us.

If you've never been to your prospective place of employment before,
make a dry run first. The hiring manager doesn't want you calling up to
say you're at the corner of Redbeenz & Rice and how far is that from
the office.

It's not the employers responsibility to do that.

It would be nice if they did, but there's no obligation.

I can rephrase that to say "accept the fact that you need to make sure you've got a clean nose on your end. "

The company I work for does let people know if they have been rejected.

That does not stop the people from calling back weeks later to "check the status of my application"

Get a clue. You got the rejected email or letter, you know you got it. You still haven't been able to find a job for weeks more. If you call back to check on the status of your application, we are still not going to hire you, because you are still the same person who interviewed poorly.

Accept the fact the you may have 3 strikes against you for past activities and you may feel you deserve a 5th chance. But, when an employer is going to spend thousands and thousands of dollars hiring and training you, they are going to be leery of giving you that 5th chance.

For some employees, we spend literally $20-25K plus in the first year in training, travel, other expenses, in Addition to their wages, a big chunk of the insurance premiums, other benefits.
Why would we want to spend that on you, only to have you quit within 6 months?

After they quit and get a job down the road for more money, if not the time to notice their job history sucks.

If you don't get an acknowledgement, or rejection letter, look at your work history and qualifications and ask yourself "would I hire me?"

dirty dozen, this question is a pretty good one for you.
You might initially say "yes, I'd hire me"

Why?

"because I deserve another chance"

Why? what have you done to deserve it?

"I haven't yelled at anyone in 6 weeks."

Even if a company is not spending tons of money on you when you get hired, rest assured they are spending A LOT more than you realize.

If it was coming out of your pocket, would you still hire you?

Oh...getting back to some basic phone issues.

You are looking for a job.
Doesn't matter is you are already working somewhere, or are unemployed.
You know you have applied for at least one job, and I would assume are hoping you get a call.

That said, there are 2 annoying catagories of people who are returning the call to THE PERSON THAT MIGHT GIVE YOU A JOB!

Catagory 1
While the caller (me) is trying to leave you a message to call me to discuss the application, here's my phone #, etc, which takes no more than, oh, 30 seconds, YOU are calling back, and my other line is ringing.

I don't want to hang up with my message unfinished. I'm looking at the blinking light, hearing the ringing, and I'm thinking "dammit, I just KNOW it's the person I'm living a message for."
I rush the message, pick up the other line, and sure enough it's you.
It's bad enough you couldn't wait a mere minute to check your call, you don't even know who it is, and when I answer you say "Who's this?" Some of you at least say "someone called me from this number?", some of you actually say "someone called me from this number earlier?"

No, I didn't call you earlier, well, I did, like 15 seconds earlier.

Now, this is common sense. If you damn phone rang, why can't you give the person 30 seconds to leave a message.

You are looking for a job. You are hoping you get a call. DO NOT act suspicious and say "Who's this?" Why not "This is John, you called this number?"

Best yet, if you didn't pick up your phone....Listen to you damn voicemail!

Catagory 2 is similar, except they don't call you back for hours, or a day, and they say "someone called me from this number?"

Again, you are looking for a job. You KNOW you are looking for a job. I'm sorry if you might have to spend 10 cents to listen to your message. You are looking, and I'm the one picking. You know that any call could be a potential job. Don't make me explain myself to you. You need to listen to your message, and when you call back, ask for the person who called you, and when you get him or her say "This is John Smith, and I'm returning your call about my job application"

You might say "Big deal"

But put all these "Big deals" together.

Is this really rocket science?

Did no one teach you how to answer the phone, or handle phone calls at some point in your life?

Consider this your education.

Here's another phone one. If you know you're going to have a phone screen, and you know the time and date (phone screens are common in my line of work. If they like you, they bring you in for F2F), make sure you're in a quiet location. As in, not a busy coffee shop. TV off.

I have had employment counselors tell me to be ready for a phone call any time, anywhere, and I must, must, must give out my cel to every recruiter on the planet. My response to that is: no. They will either call back or move on but, in the meantime, I am going to not be called when I am at my gym, driving or sitting down to dinner. I recognize that the economy stinks but that shouldn't mean that every single boundary collapses -- particularly because the vast majority of these are feeler phone calls and not really going anywhere. I think it's important (and a far better use of everyone's time) if I can give you my full attention, versus I'm also saying, while I'm trying to listen to you, "Debit."

Of course you can't be prepared to talk to someone about a job at any given minute.

I try to always ask someone "Are you able to talk right now?", and I don't mean "Are you at work? If not I expect you to stop what you're doing." I have total respect for the honesty of someone saying "Can I call you back in (give a time)" I've had more than one person say something to the effect of "I'm driving right now, and I can't give you my full attention. Can I (pull off, wait until I arrive at my destination, etc) and call you back?"

Radios/TV's in the background? For goodness sake, turn them OFF! Slightly off subject, to me that goes for any time you get a phone call. If I get a phone call, the TV goes on mute, my talk radio station gets turned off etc. BEFORE I answer the phone. Not doing so goes under "where you raised in a cave?" catagory.

If you child is crying, really, I don't want to talk to you, call me back. I've had to say/ask people "Would you like to call me back after settling your child?" Some people answer "uh no" and let the kid get more and more wound up. Yes, parents here, I know you don't do that, but a lot of people do.

No, it did not result in "them" saying that. This one person said that. For every person who puts that on their application, there are many people who are holding down their jobs, paying the bills and raising their kids.

You're suffering from selection bias; you deal mostly with folks who are job seekers.

I really think that, with cel phones, there is an assumption that people will be available 24/7. Which is ludicrous, unrealistic, and sets up unfair expectations.

Case in pernt: a friend from college had the job from hell (or, at least, the employer from hell) when she (the friend) would be called 24/7 and, yes, this meant 3 AM. For design work.

Allow me to say this now.

There is no such thing as a design emergency.

Never.

This boss was an insomniac and was apparently hell-bent on making everyone else wake up 'round the clock as well.

Obviously, not everyone is like that, but if me having to answer you, drop everything every single time in order to breathlessly and quickly speak with you about a job that I am certainly not guaranteed to get, in order for you to even consider me for that position then, no matter how crappy the economy is, I don't want your job.

Yet counselors did try to get us to believe that we'd have to answer calls at 9 PM, 6 AM, while driving, while picking up kids from day care, whatever. Unbelievable.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I am well aware of the magnitude of suckitude in this economy. But show a little goddamned common sense once in a while.

Anyway, rant over. I rarely give out the cel number. That is for a damned good reason. I will answer you in good time. It is not like I am gonna leave you hanging for weeks. Truly, it isn't going to take me more than an hour unless you called right at the end of business, and then I will return your call the following business morning (and, yes, this means Monday if you called me on Friday afternoon).

But I am not going to snap-to every time it rings unless I know for sure that you are calling. You, like everyone else on the planet, know how to use an answering machine and can leave a message. After all, even if I did snap-to every single time, who's to say I didn't snap-to and answer a call from your competitor just now? Maybe I am talking to them while you are trying to reach me. I am not going to say, sorry, gotta take this other call. No. You are going to go to voice mail. If that insults you, Mr. or Ms. Employer, get over it. Unless we had a specific appointed time and date to call, you might get a -- shock, horror! -- voice mail or busy signal. If that is too much for your delicate sensibilities to handle then I suggest you find something else to do than call people for work, because busy signals are gonna happen.

Okay. Whew. Now the rant's over.

Yes DD, and if you look at the title of this thread, this is who I'm addressing this to.

Most of the job seekers I speak with are already working, holding down a job, and paying their bills.

And no, it's not "this one person that said that".

Everything I'm saying here are happen all the time, and I mean ALL the time. As I stated before, it's not just from people who you might think haven't been exposed to this. It cuts across all walks of life. It has applied to people seeking all levels of employment. That's part of why I started this thread, because you would think some people would know better, and they don't.

A lot of people know what to do, and what is expected of them when interviewing.

A surprising number of people don't.

A question:
What is considered correct dress for an interview these days?
I would never go without a dark suit, light shirt and conservative tie.
Now I see people coming in dressed in what is called "business casual".

Oh Jes, that was a great post.

Yes, it does go both ways. Mr. Potential Employer, the person you're calling may be in the bathroom, in a meeting, hauling bags of groceries. Don't expect them to carry on a conversation with you when they are standing in line at a fast food restaurant, surrounded by other people.

Awkward.

At one point, my boss got on this calling me at any time, any day jag. I put the kibosh on that.

Well, never a 3am call, but a Saturday or Sunday afteroon call, or 9 o'clock on Wednesday night.

The first words out of her mouth (she rarely says "hello" or God forbid "Good Morning") was always "What are you doing?"

What am I doing at 4:30 Sunday afternoon? I'm in the middle of having sex with my husband. What are you doing?

If you have a suit, wear it.

If you don't dress in your most....um....dignified outfit. Some people don't own professional clothes. I know, you're supposed to have an interview outfit, but really, you have to cut someone some slack if they can't afford it.

Dress as if you were going to church, or to a funeral, or to visit your grandmother on a holiday.
This is not the time to show off your shapely butt.