Job seekers, this one’s for you. Today’s blog is a follow-up to a blog I wrote a few months ago, Recruiter Pet Peeves. This one is Hiring Leaders Pet Peeves and written to help you GET THE JOB. The next one will be Candidate Pet Peeves, so feel free to email me your comments. The following complaints are directly from hiring leaders, so please take note. To get a job in today’s competitive market job seekers need to do more than just submit their resume and wait for the phone call for an interview. It’s really important in the interviewing process to make a good first impression and these suggestions should help you stand out over other candidates. 1. This one I heard from almost every one of my clients: Candidates not knowing enough about the company they are interviewing with: Take the time to do your research! Review information about the company, the executive team, their history, the products you will be selling and the people you will be meeting with. Review the company website, read their press releases, read the blogs, check out the people you will be talking with on social media (Linkedin, Twitter). If the company has had some exciting news like recently receiving VC funding or receiving an award of some kind, bring it up in your interview. Make sure you can discuss what the company does. It’s so easy to do. When you want to sell something, don’t you do your research about the company you want to sell to; the people you’re trying to sell to? You should put as much time into your job search as you would selling your products. Instead of the product, YOU are what you’re trying to sell and don’t you want to be the best you can be. 2. Poor listening skills and over-talking in the interview: Listen in your interview and be concise with your answers. It’s easy for sales people to get caught up and over communicate or talk too much. It should be like meeting with your customer; listen for interest signals; signals that you’re on the right track and follow that lead with your conversation. Remember to ask relevant questions and give your interviewer a chance to talk too. 3. Bashing previous employers or management of the previous company: Don’t be negative when talking about your current or previous employer. Think about it, if you’re talking negative about your previous company experiences, that means you will most likely talk negative about the next company too. This is not something to share in an interview. If you need to vent and talk about your boss, do it with your friends, not someone that you want to work for. 4. Embellishing skill sets or quota attainment: Stress your achievements and talents but don’t push beyond what you’ve really done. Consider that the hiring manager has been interviewing people long enough to know when reviewing your work history to know what you’re good at and what you’re not. Be honest about your strengths and experience and how it will help the company. 5. Turning down a job offer and accepting a counter offer: You’ve gone through the entire interview process, talked to a number of different people including the C-level executives, HR has made the official offer and while the offer is really good, you think about accepting a counter offer from your existing company. Why in the world would you go want to stay with a company that only offered you something new when you were ready to leave? Why didn’t they try to make you happy before you started looking around? Remember why you started looking in the first place. Those things almost always come back to haunt you again so don’t accept a counter offer. The last part of this 3 part blog will be Candidate Pet Peeves on the interview process with recruiters and employers. Candidates, would love to get your comments. Email me and let me know your thoughts. Happy Interviewing! 
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Hiring Leaders Pet Peeves
