1. Sending mail without attachment: We sometimes make this mistake
during our correspondences by sending mail and forgetting to attach the
required documents, until the recipient of the mail call our attention
to it. Unfortunately, Job seekers don’t enjoy such luxury. No matter the
number of applications you send without attaching your CV, be rest
assured of not being shortlisted for interview.
2. Sending mail without content: This may look harmless but trust me, a
recruiter won’t find it funny if he opens an application and the only
message in the mail reads: “Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from
MTN” with the subject “my CV or my application”. This is exactly what
some applicants do, yet they expect to be invited for interview.
3. Sending mail without cover letter: Most job seekers send out
applications without cover letter. I personally don’t give too much
weight to cover letters (especially if it is online application) because
I hardly read them, and many HR professionals don’t either. You are
however sending signal of an unserious job applicant if I open your mail
and there is no form of introduction at least about yourself and what
you are applying for (even if I did not read the content). I must
quickly say most of us don’t read the cover letters because we want to
access as many CV as possible and the time spent reading one cover
letter is enough to read another CV. God help you if I have limited CVs
and I am interested in reading your cover letter and you have none or
you send hard copy of your CV without cover letter.
4. Group application: I have received applications from multiple
candidates through a single source at once and I have also received
applications that have been forwarded to many other companies before I
received them and I kept asking myself if those applicants really wanted
the job or they were just testing their skills on the usage of the
internet. Yet they wanted me to invite them (as unserious as they were)
for interview.
5. Not following instructions: Due to the volume of applications we
receive, HR professionals device means of separating each of the
advertised positions. In doing this, we either formulate code for each
job or give each of the job a particular ‘subject of the mail’. But
funny enough most jobseekers just ignore these instructions and follow
their own regular way of applying for jobs. Little did they know that
the complex application instructions are sometimes used to test their
willingness to follow instruction and attend to details if employed.
6. Sending scanned CVs: Sometimes I find it hard to understand why
applicants go the extra mile of scanning their CVs before attaching and
sending it when no instruction told them to do so. And in most cases
those scanned CVs were never well scanned; what I still do not
understand is whether they were actually scanned or snapped with phones,
and of course sent to a friend to help them apply for a job they know
next to nothing about.
7. Inaccessible CVs: I sometimes wonder why, despite all the software on
my system, I still cannot open some CV’s. I have not met any hiring
manager who will go out of his way just to open a CV to enable him
invite the candidate for interview. Simple MS word is enough, except
otherwise instructed. I wonder where the complication is coming from.
8.
Being Too eager for the job: There is no crime in contacting the
hiring manager if you have his contact, but when your calls begin to
distract/disturb him, he begins to have a rethink about you, if hiring
you will not be a problem to the company. Except you have a personal
relationship with him and that should not be abused either.
9.
Not applying early: This is an aspect many jobseekers take for
granted. By practice all advert should have at least a week window for
application, but in reality, the CV’s of the first set of people who
applied for the job are considered, except where the job attracts
limited applications or CV’s sorted electronically. We can imagine how
many cases of the exceptions abound.
10. Handing it to God in prayers.
Posted by Fozzy for www.ynaija.com
