4 Mistakes Job Seekers Make and Recruiters Complain About

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If you’re a job seeker, your sole focus it to secure employment as soon as possible, and the cycle of recruiting, resume submission, interviewing, rejection, and final placement can be daunting. If you’re the one trying to recruit the right person for the right role at the right rate for the right client, you’re also faced with mountainous challenges. Odds are you’re inundated within online resume submissions, screening and follow-up phone calls, and paperwork. With so many candidate materials to sort through, you hope the cream of the crop rises to the top.

We asked some friends and followers in various recruiting and hiring roles what irritates them the most about working with job seekers, and a few themes emerged. Here are those top irritating mistakes, and some quick tips for job seekers to resolve these problems instead of losing opportunities.

1.     Missing or Incomplete Information

It seems silly to even have to write this, but personal details sections are chock full of mistakes far more often than they should be. Recruiters are trying to do their jobs, and they might even find relevant experience or education in a candidate’s materials, but if the contact information is missing, incomplete, or wrong, two things happen. One, recruiters lose the desire to help this candidate. It becomes far too much work to track down the necessary details. Two, recruiters lose faith in this candidate’s ability to perform well in the available position, because of the lack of attention to detail or just plain laziness. Submitting this type of candidate to the client could reflect poorly on the recruiter and employer.

As a job seeker, if you to work that badly, you should not submit resumes missing accurate contact information, or making it hard to find. This is just lazy and disrespectful, and if you operate this way, expect to be without gainful employment for a while. And although we’d never advocate using the same resume to apply for every job, you can start from a base template for each role that contains your current and complete contact information.

2.     Expect Career Coaching

Recruiters also mentioned that it’s frustrating when candidates share their life stories and expect the recruiters to solve all of their career problems. That’s not what the recruiters are paid for. Recruiters need to place candidates in roles with their clients and will take the time to get into the essential details of job seekers’ career paths, and might also give advice on how to impress particular clients or field tricky interview questions. Recruiters are unlikely, though, to give long-term career advice related to companies or industries, and no one should expect them to. For job seekers who really want the expert opinion on how to navigate the overall job market, from best companies to work for to the most fitting education opportunities to pursue, consult career coaches instead.

3.     Impatient Check-ins

Most recruiters don’t just work to fill one role at a time, so the time management expectations have to be spread among candidates to fill each role successfully for all clients. Because of this, it’s irritating to recruiters to get constant, and impatient, requests for updates or advice from their candidates. Now, many recruiters are also the guilty party here, because of hounding candidates upfront, for job materials, pay rates, and skills, yet then go radio silent after submitting to the client. For both sides, the best thing to do is establish a planned time frame for communication that you’re both comfortable with, whether that’s only to check in if there’s news, or to touch base every three days. And also discuss how long it should take for a position to be filled, and if there is a pipeline for additional opportunities if one doesn’t work out.

4.     Back out at the Last Minute

As a job seeker, there are valid reasons why you might need to back out of a role you’ve verbally committed to, but it’s also good to recognize that this puts the recruiters into hot water with their clients. If they get too many people backing out, clients might reconsider giving them the work.

If there are doubts (pay too low, opportunity too advanced, commute poses challenges), job seekers can discuss with the recruiter, who might also be able to discuss some concerns with the client. If they’re empathetic but just can’t do anything about it, you can ask about other roles. If they ignore your request and seem impatient to just get a body into the role, it’s ok to move to another opportunity.