{"id":318854,"date":"2019-06-02T13:00:41","date_gmt":"2019-06-02T11:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=318854"},"modified":"2019-05-31T17:06:43","modified_gmt":"2019-05-31T15:06:43","slug":"the-5-biggest-mistakes-employees-make-before-their-job-interviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/318854\/the-5-biggest-mistakes-employees-make-before-their-job-interviews\/","title":{"rendered":"The 5 biggest mistakes employees make before their job interviews"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking for a job can be an unforgiving process, and the nerves that come with a face-to-face interview can often make things worse.<\/p>\n

According to employment company Glassdoor<\/a><\/strong>, it doesn\u2019t matter how many things you might be doing right, it just takes one wrong move, one misunderstanding, or one poor decision to entirely ruin your chances of getting the job.<\/p>\n

“As a job seeker, this reality can really be frightening \u2014 especially if you find yourself in a situation where you\u2019re simply not getting interviews no matter how many job openings you apply to, and yet you don\u2019t have a clue what you\u2019re really doing wrong,” said Glassdoor’s Peter Yang.<\/p>\n

Below he listed the common things job seekers do that may actually end up sabotaging their chances of getting that all-important interview.<\/p>\n

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Standing out \u2014 but in a bad way<\/strong><\/p>\n

Standing out in a crowded field of job applicants is a smart move, but far too often the execution behind this concept ends up hurting job seekers more than it actually helps them.<\/p>\n

For instance, many job seekers try to stand out with their resumes by using fancy templates or even turning their resume into a full-fledged infographic.<\/p>\n

In the back of their minds they think, “With such a uniquely designed resume, I\u2019ll surely get a leg up over all those other applicants with their typical uninspiring black-and-white resumes”.<\/p>\n

However, the reality is, uniquely formatting your resume just makes it harder for hiring managers to skim through your resume. Even more importantly, applicant tracking systems often can\u2019t parse these fancy formats so your resume ends up being discarded completely.<\/p>\n

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Shooting yourself in the foot with an unprofessional online presence<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sometimes the reason you aren\u2019t getting any interviews has nothing to do with what you\u2019ve submitted in your application, but rather what job recruiters are finding out about you online.<\/p>\n

With how prevalent social media and internet culture has become, employers scour the online presence of all their serious candidates the way law enforcement would for a criminal fugitive, said Yang.<\/p>\n

“Whether it\u2019s a vulgar tweet you might have made in the past or selfie showing you getting drunk at a nightclub, any of these sorts of things can immediately zero out your hiring chances.”<\/p>\n

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Doing it all yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n

A \u201cdo-it-yourself\u201d mentality is like a double-edged sword. On one hand, it\u2019s good to be independent and put your best foot forward when the going gets tough.<\/p>\n

But on the other hand, thinking you should always do everything yourself can blind you from the reality that sometimes it\u2019s better to seek help.<\/p>\n

“Far too often I\u2019ve witnessed job seekers struggle for weeks just to produce a subpar resume, when they could have been far better off hiring a professional resume writer to do the work for them,” said Yang.<\/p>\n

“Of course, finding reliable help is oftentimes tricky in and of itself, so be sure to do your due diligence when it comes to picking out a resume service or career coach who you can rely on to get the job done right.”<\/p>\n

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Failing to address the elephant in the room<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do you have long work gaps? Alternating experience in two unrelated fields? Or perhaps you come across as a job hopper?<\/p>\n

While you might be tempted to just hope and pray that hiring managers aren\u2019t going to catch on to concerning aspects of your work experience, it\u2019s oftentimes better to take the initiative in addressing these issues head-on \u2013 especially if they\u2019re something that can\u2019t be missed.<\/p>\n

“The fact is, recruiters are trained to be skeptical and often assume the worst when left to their own imaginations,” said Yang.<\/p>\n

“By offering a clear explanation in your cover letter, resume objective statement or your LinkedIn profile, you might just be able to convince hiring managers to overlook any glaring issues that may otherwise plague you.”<\/p>\n

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Being inconsistent<\/strong><\/p>\n

Inconsistency erodes trust. One of the biggest blunders job seekers make is confusing recruiters with contradictory information.<\/p>\n

If your resume says you worked at a marketing firm from 2014 to 2017 as a \u201ccontent marketing manager\u201d, your LinkedIn profile better say the exact same thing, and not contradict your resume by listing your position as simply a \u201ccontent marketer\u201d or stating that you ended your job in 2016 for example, said Yang.<\/p>\n

“Inconsistencies like these often lead hiring managers to assume the worst \u2013 that you\u2019re lying and not just making a trivial mistake.”<\/p>\n

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Read: The most common lies on South African CVs \u2013 which could soon lead to jail time<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looking for a job can be an unforgiving process, and the nerves that come with a face-to-face interview can often make things worse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":175553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[7186,26],"class_list":["post-318854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-glassdoor","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318854"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":320829,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318854\/revisions\/320829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}