The following is a list of errors made by jobseekers that are often seen during the recruitment process, and which are great ways to significantly decrease your opportunity of being selected and landing a job:

 

Sending the application too late

In other words, not even sending it late, but waiting until almost the last day to apply. Very often, recruiters do not wait until the last day, but begin to interview applicants from the very first day of the recruitment process. This also means that the bar usually rises on a continuous basis. When a few good candidates have already been interviewed, it is very difficult to get yourself into a job interview because the recruiter is now just seeing those who are perfect matches to who they say they are on paper.

 

Arriving late to a job interview

Sure, this is obvious, but it still happens sometimes. It’s not the best way to start the possible journey into a new company by coming late to the first job interview. And saying that it wasn’t your fault, but instead the bus or train was late, will not do any good. If this happens, the best thing to do is to be extremely sorry that you have made others wait, and say that it’s not a habit and will not happen again.

 

Saying negative things about your previous employer, colleagues, supervisors, etc.

Even if it’s true, it’s worth thinking of another reason why you are looking for new opportunities. Despite being the whole truth, try to come up with something else. Saying negative things about your previous employer, colleagues, supervisors, etc. can and will show you in a negative light. You quickly mark yourself as a person who’s never wrong and the problems exist in other people.

 

Lack of information about the company you’re applying for

Too often, a candidate comes to a job interview unprepared and has practically no information about the company. Preparing yourself and knowing the basics about the company is vital for a good candidate. This helps you give a great impression.

 

No questions asked in a job interview

This is almost the same thing and is often related to the previous paragraph. The fact that a candidate has not done any background research usually leads to him/her to be unable to come up with any good questions when the time is right. This mainly tells the recruiting company that it is not necessarily the most interesting company or task for the candidate.

 

Arrogance

Particularly in headhunting processes, this happens quite often. When meeting the headhunter for the first time, a candidate repeats over and over that there’s no reason for him/her to change jobs, and the main reason for being there is just to know what kind of position it would be and the incentives offered. This only leads to the situation of the headhunter losing interest and the candidate losing an opportunity that could be once in a lifetime. For the professional headhunter, it is more important to bring good, motivated candidates to the client than those who seem perfect on paper, but are just full of themselves.

 

Taking tests late

It is very common for certain kinds of personality tests to be carried out during the recruitment process. Quite often nowadays, these tests are online-based, which means that candidates can do them whenever it best suits them. However, from time to time and for one reason or another, a candidate does not get the tests done within the agreed upon timeframe. Then, when asked about the reason for this, there are various explanations of how he/she could not find the time. Normally, those tests don’t take more than an hour or two, so the image the candidate is projecting to the company is quite questionable.

 

Written,

 

Teemu Ruuska

Director

InHunt World

www.linkedin.com/in/teemuruuska

 

 

Teemu is a Director of InHunt World and has been working in the recruitment and headhunting industry since 2009. Teemu is from Finland and came to Spain in 2014 to set up and open new headhunting offices in Madrid, and later in Barcelona. Since 2016, Teemu has been focusing on designing, creating, and running the new InHunt World International Headhunting Network, which already covers over 30 countries.

 

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