Whether you are applying for roles with hot new startups or established multi-national companies, hiring new employees is generally at the top of their priority list.
With new employees, comes new knowledge, experience, and skills into their business that can help increase profit, brand exposure, and more efficient internal processes.
Although the interview stage relies a lot on you putting your best foot forward, companies don’t want their hiring manager to stand in the way of finding the perfect new employee.
Here are three common mistakes hiring managers could make and how you can prevent it happening.
1. ‘Ghosting’ You
After you have been interviewed, it’s good practice for a company to send a follow up email. This message should thank you for your time and provide a timeline for how long you can expect to wait before hearing whether you have been successful in your application. If you don’t get this you could send an email to them to thank them for their time, give any additional information you feel you forgot to mention and let them know you are interested in the role should they wish to progress any further.
Whether you have received the job or not, they should let you know the outcome of your interview when they have come to a decision. ‘Ghosting’ is when they don’t send any form of communication to an applicant after their initial interview has been conducted, which we feel is a bit rude. If you have taken the time to interview someone it is only fair that you know the outcome and if possible, receive some feedback to help you with future applications. Some companies are amazing at this, others are terrible. Again, if they don’t come back to you chase them for feedback.
In many cases, it could be that you were talented but just not a good fit for that particular role. If they think they would want to consider you for future positions, it’s important for them to leave things on a good note and give you a constructive reason why you were not selected this time around.
If they don’t provide this feedback, you may choose not to accept an interview for a role they think you’d be perfect for in the future, or you may not buy their products or use their services if you have had a bad experience and also tell your friends.
2. Not being up to speed on your skillset
Most interviewers would expect a candidate to have done some prior research on the company before showing up. That same principle also applies for the person conducting the interview.
The interviewer should have read through your CV in detail and have some questions prepared to delve deeper into your experience and skills.
You can tell when an interviewer hasn’t made the effort to look over your CV and cover letter. While this may seem like a minor inconvenience on the face of it, the reality is that it can create a poor impression of the company. It suggests that they are not as interested in you as they should be when in fact it could be down to one poor hiring manager, but it could see you missing out on the role. In which case it is always important for you to have done your research on the company, know what they do, have read the job description, have highlighted what skills and experience you have that is relevant for the role and what you can bring to the company to ensure you get everything over that you need to help you secure the role.
3. Setting unrealistic expectations and overpromising
In the moment, it can be easy for a hiring manager to overpromise when trying to attract a good candidate. This can make them look bad in the long run.
They should set realistic expectations for candidates when it comes to important things like salary, annual leave, role responsibilities and job requirements otherwise you could be very disappointed if you choose to accept the job and find out you were not told the truth in your interview. Always get any job offer in writing before accepting the role or ensure you read the contract so that you can double check salary, annual leave, role responsibilities and job requirements etc.
It’s important that hiring managers are clear with what they’re saying. If a question comes up that they aren’t clear on how to answer, it’s better for them to say that they can find out and update you later, rather than giving information that is incorrect.
