8 things that can kill your job chances

As always, i love to read all of your post.

Thanks for that! "8 things that can kill your job chances : The Work Buzz" That's good to know. I didn't think about it this way... That sounds like a good idea!

Would you like to exchange links? I have a blog on similar subject to "8 things that can kill your job chances : The Work Buzz" - we could exchange links and it would benefit both of us.

I've conducted over 200 interviews and I can tell you that even though these things are important they are trivial and any good interviewer will understand that job interviews can be high pressure situations.

Focus one key issue and these issues will take care of themselves.

* Don't show up for the interview if you can't explain to yourself why you know you are qualified for the job and why you want it. Don't let recruiters send you for interviews if you can't do this. Ask questions until you can be sure you can do this. *

This is really what the interviewer is trying to establish and most questions will trying to get you to explain that.

This will be established in the first 10 minutes of the interview, and it will be very clear if this is the case.

If you do this then the interview becomes very different. It becomes about you interviewing the company to see if they are right for you and under that mind-set you will be relaxed and confident. Just the kind of person they'll want to have working there.

If you can't, why did you go to an interview for a job you're not qualified for? You just wasted time and money that you could have spent looking for a job you are qualified for.

Unfortunately, all the research shows that interviews are horrible predictors of job performance. When things like body language and untrained or unprepared interviewers come into play, the interviews become even less reliable.

In addition, years of experience is another horrible predictor of job performance.

It reminds me of a story about two workers up for a promotion. One with two years of experience the other with 10 years experience. The employee with two years of experience gets the promotion. The other employee is furious and complains to the boss citing their superior experience. The boss replies " You haven't had 10 years of experience. You've had 1 year of experience ten times".

Yet we have to play by the rules that govern the system. So the best we can do is to be ourselves and put our best foot forward. Any advice on how to do so should be welcomed.

Thank you for the informative article.
Body Language can say a lot about you.

Joseph, #250, Excellent post!!!!!

Hiring is a weeding out process. Some flowers are apt to get plucked along with the weeds.

Lisa wrote: "And Barry, while you might be using one or two examples of experiences you’ve endured, I highly doubt companies choose to waste their time and money throwing out fake job listings, sorting through hundreds of resumes, and interviewing people just so they can test the waters and see what’ll happen when there is no real job available. Like they’re all going into the next room and laughing through a glass wall at you."

Lisa, I hate to disrupt your innocence, but this type of thing does happen. I once worked at the corporate HQ of a major U.S. retailer whose initials are BBB. The company routinely posted job openings like clockwork. Many of these positions were already filled! I investigated (especially because I saw my job pop up once!) and learned some of the reasons for this: in some instances, they're playing with the titles or other wording of the description to see which gets the most responses, in other instances they're trying to gauge what the current market salary was for different positions (requiring applicants to include salary requirements). In other instances, they were just building a "library" of interested candidates should a position open up (one department had an awful director who lost 6 of his 15 people in 6 months, more than one of which simply walked out the door and didn't come back). I've seen positions be interviewed for and no one ever hired, but I didn't get much info on what was going on there. I have reason to suspect that a "net" was being cast trying to find someone who didn't know their own worth and had an asking price far below current market rate. If they find someone willing to work for a low salary, they create/fill the position, if not, they don't add that position. I did see someone create a position once and fill it with someone who worked for a startup before and ended up taking the job at 40% below market rate yet perform above-average. Of course, once he found out he was the only one working for below-market rates and caught the same bad director lying to him by claiming he was working at market rates and everyone else was getting paid what he was, he too quit with no notice.

Some one you down on Barry should remember the words of George Bernard Shaw: "The power of accurate vision is often labeled 'cynicism' by those who fail to possess it."

I love the woman above who brags about her hiring process: first HR interviews, then VP, finally her. So first someone who knows nothing about the job filters the candidates, then someone who won't work the person (and might not know the job either), then finally her. She brags she often hasn't seen the resume but she can tell all she needs to know anyway. This is magical thinking. Everyone in the world ought to be required to spend some time at a race track; they'd learn many useful things. You see the same type of self-delusion: hey, the last two horses that won had the most recent workout! That must be the answer! They then blindly bet every horse with the most recent workout, forget their losses and remember their winnings, and without any statistical proof their method works will argue it ferociously without even knowing if they're ahead or behind.

I've seen lists like this article before, and it reminds me of something. I read an interview with the great engineer/entrepeneur Nolan Bushnell (founder of Atari and involved in creating Chuck E. Cheese, among other things). He talked about how he asks engineering applicants how to change a wall socket, because so few have real practical knowledge. He goes on to list all the traits of a great engineer. Why? Because he's BEEN an engineer. Joel Sploskly (sp) the software entrepreneur was at a presentation and spoke about how he doesn't worry about the specific qualifications of his programmers because computing trends change. Instead, he looks for whether they're constantly learning, have experience with one of the new technologies to show curiosity, etc. He was followed by a head hunter who got up and said he's seen what people are looking for at the moment so candidates should have 3 years of Java, 2 years of this, etc. Why the difference? Splosky has been a good programmer and thus knows what qualities a good programmer should possess. The head hunter has no idea.

People who actually understand a position and have excelled in that position when asked about candidates will give you a list of what makes a GOOD candidate. Talk to someone who doesn't understand the position, and they instinctually rattle off a list of what makes a POOR candidate, and often those reasons are superficial or like the head hunter a current snapshot. When you see reasons being given like the article above, it's clear it's been compiled by someone who doesn't understand what makes a good candidate, so a variety of silly superficial reasons are listed instead. As someone else pointed out, these can be reasons managers tell themselves after the fact to justify hiring the person who was the prettiest, youngest, or liked the same sports team.

You're also seeing attacks on Barry by people who have a job or in a position to hire. They want to believe that they're entirely self-made, there was no luck or randomness involved, their race or look or age had nothing to do with it, so as to inflate their accomplishment and their own ego. The flip side is that anyone without the current success must be totally to blame - they must be terrible people, the homeless person must really want to be homeless or just lazy, etc. That's why Barry has to be attacked. You also see the elevation of the hiring process to Einsteinian levels by those who are feeling guilty at the suggestion that subjective reasons might have been involved.

Many objective studies have shown that what many people are saying here is indeed the case. One study sent out identical resumes to hundreds of companies. The only difference was some had "WASP" names like "G. Warren Worthington III" and the others had ethnic names like Darrell and Lakisha. Result? Even though the companies were all listed as being equal opportunity employers, the WASP resumes got calls to schedule interviews at DOUBLE the amount the ethnic names did. There's no explanation other than subjective, possibly subconscious, biases. If even your name is a factor, how much more so your physical presence? Instead of defending hiring and HR, employers would do much better to examine studies like this and attempt to objectify the process.

Another smaller study had a list of names of companies desperate for experienced engineering candidates with many years experience leading large-scale projects. Resumes were created and given impeccable credentials: Harvard and MIT degrees, etc. I believe only 3 of the 19 resumes got requests for an interview. Another related study fed "perfect" resumes into computer resume systems and found that only 20% of them popped out the other end, showing that even ideal candidates had a good chance of never having a human see their resume. Again: doesn't this show that hiring practices are in chaos? One professor of management science had the courage to publish an article labeling all HR generalists "dinosaurs" and requesting they all be fired, but so far the traditional hiring practices continue to be un-scientific, employing non-statistically significant, non-peer-reviewed practices that often amount to pseudoscience and magical thinking. For instance, credit reports continue to be used to filter candidates, while (as of three years ago) only one statistically significant study had been done, finding that poor credit scorers turned out to be slightly BETTER employees (of course - they need the money!) Meanwhile, HR continues to defy mathematics and employ "whatever sounds good" to try to make a hard job easy by creating irrelevent metrics to filter out candidates to avoid having to do things like actually read resumes.

The best interview I ever had, for the most successful global shipping company in the world, resulted from the interviewer personally reading ALL resumes himself (no HR) and hand-selecting all candidates to be interviewed. He also had my resume MEMORIZED enough to ask interject questions on trivial matters without glancing at the resume. As I mentioned before, in my last 10 interviews, 8 interviewers had not seen my resume before and 3 referred to me by the wrong name at least once. Even though I didn't get this job, I had no regrets, knowing for sure the interviewer was fully knowledgeable on both me and the duties of the job.

Barry,
Mad much?
Maybe the reason you don't get hired is because potential employers are somehow picking up on this deep seeded anger you have… I don’t know just a thought, you know, you mask it so well :-)

Barry I agree with your comment a hundred percent! Last Monday was my thirteenth interview for a bank; I've looked professional and have the skills to be a bank teller, but the employers were the unprofessiona ones. The lady who interviewed me at the last one was so high on caffeine that she was flicking her pen at me the entire time! Thank you for expressing those thoughts because that's exactly how I feel, ahaha. :)

Your body language list is right on but there are 2 more, a comfortable amount of eye contact and keep your hands visable.

8 Real Requirements In the Central California California Job Market from an observant retired teacher....
Requirements:
1. speak Spainish, 2. be eligible for the govt. to pay part of your pay because you are in a "program" 3. be related to someone who's hiring, 4. be transfering from a great job 5. not be a 25 to 40 year old white male with no disabilities and no job (doesn't get the employer any perks for the hire) 6. not be under educated 7. not be over educated 8. be the youngest person for the job.

Do interviewers waste time? Occasionally, I have 38 years in one industry alone and had an interviewer call me in response to my Resume. After talking about how well my experience matched just what they were looking for and telling me I would be an excellent candidate for the position (over 1 hour on the phone) he said" We are really looking for people that plan to put 20-25 years into our company. Are you ready for that kind of commitment?"

Do the math BEFORE you call me...even if I had started in my industry immediatly out of High School at age 18 I would be 56 years old today! Commit to another 20-25 years not on your life at 78 I plan on being retired, or at the most doing what I want for myself, not putting 50-60 hours a week in for someone else.

This was indeed a waste of his company's time and although it did "stroke my ego" it was actually a waste of my time as well.

Yes, Barry is bitter and has every right to be given how employers are treating candidates these days.

I once interviewed a few candidates for a position and it came down to a tough choice. Do I pick the more experienced candidate or the more technical candidate? Since it was a group decision I got together with 2 of the other interviewers to discuss our options. During the meeting they decided to choose the more technical candidate. The reason for their decision, she was cute and had big boobs. I was floored. Not only was I shocked at how they decided but that they would openly discuss their reasoning. I told the hiring manager what transpired but nothing ever happened and it bothers me to this day.

Living in WI over these past eighteen years of the state's inception of WI's Open Circuit Courts website has ruined any chances of me ever developing a career.

It's easier for someone from a another country and develop a career than to try to develop a career. It's seems somewhat Unconstitutional. The website is used for all forms of discrimination and harassment by all walks of life.

I don't think that is or was the intention of the developers of the WI justice system to have the website used for these purposes but it is just the way it is in this state but it's what is happening. They say that a fine will be imposed for using the website to discriminate but who enforces it? No one!

A huge tip for interviews is to always end on a question. Doing this makes it seem like your the one running the interview and seeing if the job is good enough or even worth it.

Amen Barry. It is tiring dealing with all the lying and depreciation.

Dear Anonymous,

Aside from proficiency in the workplace, chemistry with co-workers is critical to productivity. You may be the most talented of the potential employees, but if nobody wants to work with you, overall morale and productivity decreases. I'm sure that you have all worked with someone in the past, or possibly currently, that makes you wish you'd stayed home. That type of workplace atmosphere doesn't foster creativity or desire to put your best effort into your work. If proper chemistry is achieved, people can define themselves by what they do, and not simply get paid for their time.

I'd rather have a group of motivated workers that desire to do a good job than talented iindividuals that constantly stir up trouble.

Just my views.

barry , as an employer we will decide how long the interview lasts ,how many call backs there will be, whether it is or is not worth the managers time,and ANY OTHER BUNCH OF CRAP we deem necc. to try to find the best employee we can. its an employers market you can blame your goverment for that; we try an be carful not to let people with bad attitudes slip by ,its a weeding out proccess ,so were not stuck working with people like you everyday

To Janet Gia --
Employers really look for 2 things: your ability to do the job, and your ability to not make their job any harder (this usually translates into people skills). Your resume and the content of your interview responses are evidence for the first. How you handle yourself in general tells them the answer for the second, like this article's subject.
But for your example that you gave, I guess you'd have to decide whether the person is really a racist, or someone who needs to be educated out of their stereotypes, or someone who thought that their comment was only an innocent ice-breaker. Your call.
In any event, your responsibility is to conduct yourself with dignity and integrity. Even someone lacking those attributes can recognize and respect them in another person. I remember a great line about Frederick Douglass, in which the writer said that Douglass did not run away from slavery, but turned his back on it. Your interviewer may note that you may be a positive influence in that workplace.
Best wishes for your success!

Hi Janet. How brave of you to post what is the real reason you lose a job. These items listed here can help, of course and everyone should pay attention to them. But understand that the HR representative that is screening you has a list of things to screen you for. Whether these job boards want to admit it or not, the two things that actually help you lose a job is ethnicity and age. When going on a job interview, be OBSERVANT. (If you can) if the company is all white and young, and you're of another ethnicity, you wont be hired. If it's white and middle aged, you wont be hired, no matter how "qualified" you are. I worked for a department where the manager was Ivy league, white, middle aged and he only hired (20ish) young white girls. Upper management hired me, and he always ignored anything and everything I had to say or contribute and finally was able to lay me off because I came in a minute (yes a minute) late and the company was going through a merger. So lets cut the bull and get down to reality. These items are important too when in an interview, but nothing beats the company make up.

Honestly, some of what Barry has said is true. Although he posted it with anger intended, the interviewer is afraid of hiring the wrong person because of their managers afriad they hired the wrong person and so on. If you hire the wrong person and have to end up firing them or they steal then your manager will have your butt regardless of your pay. This is in all job places and that is why some interviewers are like that. But besides this, yes the job interview shouldn't be about how you sit or how much you move your hands, it should be about you as a person and what you will bring to the company other than another candidate. This in my opinion, is the most important aspect when it comes to a candidate. As said from a wise friend of mine "You can go to harvard and get a doctorate in anything and be a complete jerk and get no where, but you can go to the university of retards and get a good degree but have a great spirit and personality, thats what lands you the job." So if you take anything from this post is that the Ethics of job hiring are in the toilet and its because of this that jobs are almost unobtainable without the right amount of support and money.

After nearly 15 years of interviewing candidates for my small business which deals with Fortune 500 clients, there are many things that are determined in an interview process.....one of the most important things is to determine if you are a radical person that could poison the rest of the team you would be working with. A single bad hire with an attitude can destroy and otherwise enjoyable working environment and devastate morale. Thats is one of many reasons you are interviewed by multiple people.

hahahaha!!

Hail! Hail!

Many of the "I can do the job answers" without social skills indicate exactly that.No social skills. You need to work with people, people.

Barry,
It sounds like you need to quit pouting and sucking your thumb. If you are so distraught with the interview process, and feel you are above it......Start your own damn company and shut up!

I totally agree....I just want a job..it takes about 5 minutes to find out if you like me for the the job or not!!! We are grown people....i'd rather hear at that moment if you think i'm right for your job or to fit into the "click" at your at your place of business! Please ...to all employers out there...drop all these foolish antics in your Co. policies!! You are probably missing out on the best people out there....thats why you have to hire constantly...You have to take some responsability for your lack of judgement!!!

What about going to an interview, when the person doing the interview does not
know how to interview and asking ridulous questions that dont apply to the job
you are applying for.

I believe that as long as i can get into the interview .. I usually can stand a good shot at the job... Problem i see in the company i work for now is they are mainly looking for the younger folks ... old duffers like myself at 50 usually have a tougher time ... with the state of the job market currently its tough to get a job doing anything .. Have faith these are good suggestions .. but the bottom line is the person that is interviewing you either likes you or they dont so just keep applying someting will happen ...

Gee angry much? Yes I agree the companies do make candidates interview for jobs that have been either changed or are no longer available and then the candidate must undergo an interrogation by committee. Face it...either you have to deal with the nonsense or create your own job and neither of these choices seems like a good idea in these economic times.

This is true that body language is crucial at work. Sometimes too much smile is also bad. Discipline is the key!

Its also true most of the idiots who interview would ask stupid questions and waste your time why?
1) the job is only for one or limited persons and was filled quiclky, so they are wasting your time , to satisfied their ego, and to have some fun scutnising you.
2) or they just want to get someone better than those whom they hired, its like fishing for a bigger catch
3) some postings are bogus , there is no jobs, all they want to do is kill their time or entertain themselves.
4) some small companies, they want to act like big Corporate giants, would post a requirement for a airline pilot, or some chief financial executive when all they actually need is a runner boy.

Bye the way i never went to job interview for myself, but i have assisted other employers finding job positions.

The problem is the real 20% unemployment rate; not candidates, their smiles or a lack thereof.

Before we even begin blaming the 800 candidates for a single job, we should ask ourselves who does this article help when no one is hiring?

Janet,
you can say something like "Oh and I thought you would be a big handsome black man" (if he's white, of course). or "I was a blonde, but dyed it, so people wouldn't think I was dumb"

Wow Barry. With your forthright honesty, it is inconceivable that you should have had any difficulty at all obtaining a job. I agree that to have any introspection into the situation is a waste of time, until everyone else realizes it is all their fault.

Barry... you are completely right. I totally agree 100%. =)

One time i had an interview with a company named GCA services(custodial). Here comes the long awaited day of my interview, so I show up for the meeting in Birmingham Michigan and meet with a man named Patrick. I get through the interview and i get the job. Yay! But then the wierd part comes. He stands up to shake my hand ..... and he has this HUGE hump in his pants lol. i guess he was more excited about the job than i was.

Well, No, Barry.
Spmetimes it's not about YOU.
People who need to fill a position do need to talk to several applicants to see who is the most palatable and talented, and to see who they'd actually like to associate with on an everyday basis. You apparently didn't make the cut a few times, and I can understand your frustration. However I can also understand from your tone that the liner notes from your interviews might include the term 'walking hemmeroid'. Your 'I' count in your post here is through the roof and again, sometimes it's NOT all about you.
FInd something you're good at and start your own business. That'll 'learn' you!

I keep hearing about how hard it is to get a job, but here in Texas I'm just not seeing it. There are "help wanted" signs all over the dang place. I've been offered about 12 different tech or accounting jobs over the last year and turned them all down because I'm doing fine where I'm at. Is Texas just doing that much better than every state, or what?

I am going to have to agree with Barry about those cowards. If you can't handle the truth then you must be one of those cowards.

These are the stupidest reasons I have ever read: * Lack of smile – 38 percent
* Fidgeting too much – 33 percent
* Bad posture – 33 percent
* Handshake that is too weak – 26 percent
* Crossing arms over their chest – 21 percent
* Playing with their hair or touching their face – 21 percent
* Using too many hand gestures – 9 percent

Focus on if the person can do the job.

I have done many interviews. And the "crap" about having other people to talk to is true - only an idiot would interview just one person for a position. And multiple interviews are a great idea - then the interviewers can compare notes and see if the interviewee was honest. As for not calling to let you know k- I used to call every candidate back either way but then when placing a call to let someone know she did not get the job I could here her screaming and cheering when she was told it was me on the phone then I told her she was not hired and it was very emotinal for her. I have found that a better way is to tell the candidates at the end of the interview to call me on a particular day during a certain time slot so that I can let them know what my decision was. Hiring someone into your business that you worked very very hard all of your life to build is a huge decision. You are probably going to allow this person to represent you to your customers or handle your finances or.... the list goes on and on. I am sick of people who have the attitude that I "owe" them a job just because I said I am hiring and they happened to apply. A bad hiring decision can be very expensive in money, time, and customers.

This is helpful and useful information. We should always employ good and positive body language, either in a job interview, or in any person-to-person relationship exchange.

Another tip: Go to the job interview with the mind-set and goal of showing the interviewer / prospective company / "This Is How I Can Be A Beneficial Resource To You and This Company"

In everything, approach everyone with this attitude: "I Can Be A Positive Resource To You In This Way ......"
Sharon Roni Ellis
Author

Very interresting
Thanks