You have the power to stand out with recruiters by engaging them in a professional way that avoids these seven pet peeves that drive recruiters crazy.
Pet Peeve 1: Playing Where’s Waldo?
Recruiters get frustrated when you have multiple phone numbers and email addresses on your resume or different ones listed on your LinkedIn profile, resume, and online application, and you email us from another email address.
We don’t have the time to play “Where’s Waldo?” and call or email you several times at different phone #s or email addresses to find you. Use one phone number and one email.
Pet Peeve 2: Unengaging Outgoing Voicemail Message
The first time a recruiter hears you may be when they call and get your voicemail message.
Often, we get an impersonal, system voicemail message; a lot of background noise from happy hour; a full mail mailbox message; or a bland, sad voice. Any of these is not a good first impression.
In 2020, the Career Thinker recruiting team logged more than 650 candidate calls. Here’s what we found.
66% of them had no voicemail message or no personalized message; instead, we heard a computer-automated message. This is even worse when your job search is for a client-facing role.
55% of those who had voice messages sounded sad or boring. They spoke softly where we could not hear, were unenergetic, and unenthusiastic. They sounded unhappy. But employers want to attract energetic and positive people to their teams.
8% of the mailboxes were full! I just don’t get it. If you can’t manage your communications getting back to friends, family, and possible job opportunities, you’re telling the recruiter you are disorganized and unavailable. Besides, we can’t reach you about that great job opportunity!
Side Note: If you are in job search mode, a good habit is answering your phone with a positive attitude and good energy. If you sound as I woke you from a nap, or instead of hello, I hear a grunt, I will question your communication quality.
Pet Peeve 3: Having Funky Email Addresses
Too many times, we see something too cute or funky, like happyfridaygirl@ymail.com or stanthestud@ymail.com or 5458542554525@ymail.com. No! Get one professional email address and try to incorporate your first and last name. Be aware of adding two- or four-digit numbers at the end or beginning of an email address; it might be read as your birth year or age; I have an old email address with 66 at the end, my old apartment #, but now that email address might put me at the age of 66.
Besides having one email address across career documents and platforms, making sure your email address is professional and your reply shows a professional communication style.
I always coach clients to have two personal email addresses: one for their friends, family, and shopping and another one for the professional side of your life.
Pet Peeve 4: Magnify Glass Please
Too many people squeeze too much content on a one-page resume with narrow borders, no white space between paragraphs or sections, and tiny 8- or 9-point fonts.
Give recruiters a resume that is easy to scan, easy to read, and easy to search.
If your resume isn’t fun to read or has to be magnified, it wastes their time, and you look unprofessional.
Two-page resumes (or sometimes more) are okay as long as everything is relevant to your next career move, key sections and headings are highlighted, and pages are well-spaced with fonts between 10 – 12 points, depending on the font style.
A method I use when I recruit and narrow my first pass to 10 qualified resumes; I print out the 10 resumes, lay them out on a clutter-free desk/table in two rows of 5, hold and read each resume, adding notes/questions each. Then I pick my top 5 resumes for the initial phone/video screening interview. My point, a resume needs to be friendly to read from a printed copy without a magnifying glass or on a screen without magnifying to 200%.
Pet Peeve 5: Don’t Play Match Game
Red flags are raised when you have different dates, job titles, or company names for the same position on your resume compared to your LinkedIn profile or online application. Job dates and the job titles need to match between them.
I don’t want to see VP of Operations on a resume with dates from 2016 to 2020. Then, when I go to your LinkedIn profile, I see Assistant Operations Manager 2016 to 2018. They need to match.
Following are better strategies for clarifying what you do and handling dates.
Try This Tip
Instead of using different job titles to convey your real responsibilities, add skills or responsibilities to your actual job title.
For example, if your job title says District General Manager, it may be vague and not tell hiring managers reading the resume what you do.
In this case, you can add your responsibilities in parentheses after the title, as shown below.
District General Manager (Sales, Operations, Human Resources, Safety, and P&L)
Or, on LinkedIn,
District General Manager ▶ Leadership in Sales | Operations | Human Resources | Safety | P&L
Boom! You’re showing what you do while keeping your actual job title.
Dates
People sometimes hide date gaps by showing years only. But these gaps, especially of a few months, don’t matter as much as you think they do, and recruiters are smart; no months usually means you are hiding gaps.
Recruiters typically prefer you show each job’s duration with a month and a year. Online job applications normally require you to enter Month/Year. Whether you choose years only or Month/Year, make sure your resume, job application, and LinkedIn profile match.
Pete Peeve 6: Being a Telemarketer
Recruiters get constant emails from telemarketer types who send emails, messages, texts, or voicemails asking, “Did you make a decision? What’s going on? When should I hear back from you?”
Repeated communications at the wrong time create an uncomfortable relationship between you and recruiters. They might not even pick up the phone or answer your message because they’re so upset about hearing from you five or six times in one week.
Instead, ask at the end of every interview, “What are the next steps in the interview process?” This applies to any interaction, whether on the first phone call, a video session, or a second or third face-to-face interview.
And if they tell you the next steps and don’t give you a date or timeline, ask, “When can I expect to hear back from you?”
Then, if you don’t hear back the day after that date, you can contact them for an update on the hiring process.
Pet Peeve 7: Don’t Become Casper
People talk on social media about how recruiters ghost job seekers. And there’s definitely some truth in that. But candidates do a lot more ghosting than you would think.
If we’re trying to schedule a second or third interview, get back to us. Don’t let us wait days on end. Sometimes we have deadlines for filling each job opening.
Similarly, if I make a job offer to you, and then you say, “I’m going to get back to you tomorrow,” and I don’t hear back on that day or even two or three days later, I assume you’re not interested in the position. Worse, you’ve shown that you’re someone we can’t depend on to follow through.
Instead, if you need extra time, tell the recruiter, “Tom, I appreciate the offer. I just need a couple more days to think about it,” or “I need the weekend to think about it.”
It’s okay to think about an offer. You might even juggle three job offers and use that as negotiation leverage for a better salary.
Just don’t be Casper and ghost recruiters and hiring managers. Tell them what’s going on with you.
You Have the Power to Please Recruiters and Hiring Managers
Follow these simple tips to avoid alienating recruiters like me who can connect you to your next ideal job.
- Use one email and phone number on all your documents, and don’t confuse me.
- Show your professionalism, enthusiasm, and attention to detail in every communication, including your email, voicemail message, and an enthusiastic tone of voice.
- Answer the email and voicemail messages I send you.
- Give me an attractive, easy-to-skim and read resume to tell the story of your career and success, even if it takes two pages or more, so I can enjoy reading it.
- Be consistent with your job information across all platforms so you don’t make me guess what’s right and raise red flags.
- Ask me at every stage of the interview process what’s next and when—so you know when to follow up—and only call when you’re sure it’s time.
- Follow up when you say you will, even when you’re still thinking about your decision. Be professional and not a pesky telemarketer or Casper who ghosts me.
Tom Powner
🧿Schedule your complimentary Resume/LinkedIn profile review; click on my online calendar to answer a few questions, then pick a day and time.
✅CPRW (Certified Professional Resume Writer)
✅CCMC (Certified Career Management Coach)
✅NCOPE (Nationally Certified Online Profile Expert) LinkedIn Instructor
✅CEIP (Certified Employment Interview Professional)
✅CDCC (Certified DISCstyles™ Communication Consultant)
✉ TomPowner@careerthinker.com
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