Interview Mistakes: What You Can Learn From One Job Seeker

Mistakes are bound to happen at some point for a job seeker. Between all of the cover letters, resumes and interviews, it is only human for a mistake to happen.

The key to making a mistake during the job seeking process is how the candidate reacts to it. Most hiring managers will tell you it is better to own up to the mistake and show how you can correct and move past it. Unfortunately, not all job seekers take that approach.

In a recent story he shared through a post on LinkedIn, Nextiva’s Vice President of Sales, James Murphy, shared an account that made me laugh at first—then ask, why?

Murphy posted, “…Had an interviewee show up 30 minutes late for an interview today. He did not attempt to contact us to say he would be late and when I asked why he was late he lied about his scheduled time. I asked to see the confirmation email he received and it clearly stated the interview time. I do not have time or patience for poor character, so I simply thanked him for his time and told him we were not interested. He thought I was joking, I was 100% serious. If you don’t have the ability to show up on time for the chance to get the job, you do not have respect for mine or my management teams time and you DEFINITELY do not have respect for the opportunity! How do you handle people who show up late for an interview?”

The humor I found in this post was in regard to the interviewee lying about the scheduled time. In the day and age of digital where you receive confirmation emails and calendar invitations, why would someone lie about something that could be easily verified with the click of a button on your phone?

Murphy’s frustration to the job seeker’s reaction is absolutely warranted. A simple phone call explaining why he/she was running late and asking Murphy if he would like to re-schedule would have been much better than showing up and pretending there was a time mix up of some sort.

What can you learn from this massive interview mistake?

No. 1: Have the common courtesy to let someone know you are going to be late

This rule should apply from the job seeking stage to your professional stage post-hiring. In this day and age of people having their phones in their hand 95 percent of the time they are awake, there is no excuse for not calling/texting/emailing someone if you are running late.

As detailed in Murphy’s reaction above, you are not only making yourself look bad—but you are wasting the time of key decision makers in an industry you are looking to work in. Imagine showing up at a networking event trying to grow your personal connections for a future sales opportunity, only to find out the person running the event is that person you lied to? Good luck to your reputation in that room.

No. 2: Always plan on arriving early for an interview

Growing up, I was always taught to “arrive 15 minutes early” for job interviews and appointments in business classes. This is an excellent rule of thumb to live by, but if you have trouble arriving 15 minutes early, I suggest aiming for 30 minutes if time permits.

Why 30 minutes, you ask?

Well, it will give you time to review your notes about the company and the job position. It will also show the hiring manager you are excited to meet with them and are prepared to meet earlier if necessary.

No. 3: Never lie if/when you make a mistake

Lying is the easy way out of a mistake. Employers and hiring managers do not want the person who takes the easy way out, plain and simple.

Sure, admitting a mistake opens you up to scrutiny and the potential for someone to be mad at you—but showing the ability and plan to rectify that mistake is going to be beneficial to you in the long run. It proves to those in a position of power you can handle problems when they come up, and can think on your feet in order to come up with a solution.

Final Thought

Seeing situations shared like this on social media provide excellent learning opportunities for both job seekers and those currently in the work force. Take the time to follow industry leaders on social media, because they are providing real-life examples and situations you can learn from before they happen.

In this case, not showing up late to an interview seems like common sense—but not lying about it is even higher on the common sense meter. So, do not be like the person in this example. If you make a mistake, step up to the plate and own it, then show the person in a position of power how you are going to overcome that mistake.

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3 Reasons Why Employees Are Quitting at a High Rate

In the employment field, one of the most difficult conversations to have for most is why an employee is leaving a company. The employee leaving usually does not want to hurt anyone’s feelings or burn any bridges on the way out the door, while some employers are unwilling to admit they could be to blame for losing top talent from their organization.

It is easy to say someone left for more money or because they could not handle the job, but if you truly want to understand why employees are leaving your organization, you need to dig deeper and pay more attention to warning signs when they first appear with your employees.

Recently on Inc.com, Elle Kaplan of Lexion Capital Management dug into “Eight Reasons Why Exceptional Employees Quit Their Jobs.” I will discuss three of these eight reasons (you can read the full article here), and why they are important for both job seekers and organizational leaders to look for on the job.

No. 1: “They Don’t Instill Purpose”

In her article, Kaplan pointed out, “Research has shown that there is a consistent relationship between a company’s profitability, productivity and how important an employee believes in the company’s mission and purpose.”

Many employers seem to think that an employee earning a steady paycheck is enough of a motivator for someone to show up every single day and give their best effort. While being able to pay the bills is an important factor for most people, they can do that working pretty much anywhere. Getting an employee to “buy in” to the overall mission and goal of your organization is huge when it comes to developing a culture employees want to thrive in each day.

How can an organization do this? From my experience at different companies, focusing less on the bottom line and more on what you are achieving as a group and how your efforts are impacting people in a positive manner goes a long way.

My co-workers used to laugh when I talked about how we were “changing lives” every single day when I worked at a local college immediately after I graduated from college. However, that was my driving factor every single day to go above and beyond. I would stay a little later if a student needed me to help, and it did not bother me one bit because of the reward of seeing them graduate and chase their own life goals one day.

My challenge for both employees and employers when it comes to purpose is to “find the why,” and then drive home that message in your organization.

No. 2: “They Don’t Provide Opportunities for Growth”

In this section, Kaplan pointed out the following. “A study in Harvard Business Review looked at why top performers are job-hunting, and they found that a lack of development opportunity is often the fuel that leads to early exits.”

Many organizations do not realize the impact that an employee growing up their corporate ladder can have on culture as a whole. Not only does it reward employees for hard work and effort, but it sets a tone within the organization that you want to retain and promote your top talent. This in turn can light a fire under your workforce without having to give any of those dreaded “do better” speeches.

From my own experience, where companies can fail with this is to pigeon-hole an employee into a certain ceiling of growth as well. For example, an old company I was part of used to promote people to “Project Managers.” There wasn’t really a true definition of what this entailed, but it was how they moved their entry-level employees up, in their eyes.

If you are going to reward employees with growth, make sure it still entails what they were thriving at before. Obviously part of getting a promotion is taking on new tasks and additional responsibility, but if you strip away the items someone is passionate about, you are playing with fire when it comes to keeping that employee happy.

No. 3: “They Micromanage”

“If you’re constantly trying to control every inch, you’ll detract from the work quality of everything, while quickly dissolving trust in your team.”

Let me preface this by saying, there are certain employees who need a level of micromanaging in their lives. Just like in sports where some athletes need a coach to stay on them to get the most out of them, some employees need a boss to make sure they are on task and to push them a little just the same.

However, not all employees are the same—and it is the job of the employer to realize this. Just because you are used to controlling every aspect of your business, does not mean you should do so—especially when in most instances you brought someone into your organization to do something you could not do or wanted to improve on.

How can an employer walk that fine line between being a manager and a micromanager?

Present expectations and goals for an employee from day one, and then measure them on a certain date. This will breed a culture of trust and personal responsibility to your employees. They will now understand it is their responsibility to complete their tasks and hit goals, and be measured on them at the end of the period. If you are over their shoulder every single day, you may suppress creativity and replace it with them needing to “look like they are working” every given moment.

Final Word

Kaplan’s article had a number of great reasons why employees are quitting at a rate of more than 1 in 5 employees—I highly recommend you give it a read at the link above.

At the end of the day, you cannot force an employee to stay in your organization. Some are naturally going to outgrow positions and get to a level where your structure no longer provides them enough of a reward to feed their desire.

The goal is to create a culture and environment where employees do not want to leave for the easy reasons. Giving them a reason to show up, opportunity to grow and the space to perform their jobs and be personally responsible for their actions goes a long way in an organization.

If you can do this as an employer, you will see employees who want to perform at a higher level for your company—and likely have a more profitable company as an indirect result.

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Steel Industry Leader Praises Recent NexGoal Placement

For those of you who are following NexGoal on any of our social media channels, regularly checking our website or are signed up for our eNewsletters, you often see our “success stories” feature. In these articles, our content team provides detailed feedback about the experience of a candidate being placed from the eyes of that candidate.

This is obviously great for other job seekers to find out what the “NexGoal Experience” is all about. However, often times our clients feel left out because they do not get to see what the employers who actually hired those candidates have to say about their end of the hiring process.

Well, today we would like to take a moment to share some feedback from one of our local clients here in the Cleveland area, Majestic Steel. Recently, Vice President of Sales for Majestic Steel, Tim Quinn, reached out to our team to discuss a candidate who was placed with their company.

Talking with NexGoal co-founder and CEO, Kevin Dahl, Quinn stated, “Kevin, thank you for the recent placement of John Mayer. He is very well educated for his new role with our company and brings a great amount of experience and information. What a perfect fit. Please keep bringing talented sales candidates to the table — cloning John would be acceptable!!!”

While cloning candidates is still not approved by the government (here’s to hoping it happens soon), we are happy that Majestic and Mr. Quinn are happy with their recent hire! We also appreciate the kind words from our client and the hard work of our recruiting team to find such a qualified candidate.

If you would like to learn more about how we can infuse excellent candidates like this into your organization, click here to schedule a meeting with our team!

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NexGoal and Large Manufacturing Company Work Together to Fill Job Needs

Often, people read on the NexGoal website about our commitment to our clients but due to confidentiality agreements with them, we cannot share with you the names of the clients we represent. Well, just this week one of our clients decided to share a glowing review of the services we have provided them over the years … and even asked us to share that review with our audience.

Why you ask? Simply, they appreciate the dedication our Project Coordinators and Business Development teams have put in during our time working together. The placement of our athlete-candidates in their organization has delivered high quality workers who have contributed greatly since joining their organization.

But hey, do no just take my word for it. Hear directly from the Vice President of Operations from this company.

As Vice President of Operations for a large manufacturing company I have relied on NexGoal to find top talent for key positions within my many manufacturing facilities. NexGoal has provided my team top quality candidates who were not only qualified for the position but had potential to grow into other roles. All the candidates that NexGoal presented were thoroughly screened and informed about the position we we were interviewing for. Some of my roles were in remote locations that were difficult to fill and NexGoal provided quality candidates for those positions. NexGoal made sure they understood our needs, our culture and our budget when working to fill positions. Their follow up and persistence helped streamline our recruiting process and brought on talent that might otherwise have gone to other companies.

I would strongly recommend using NexGoal in your next search for key roles within your organization. Their quality of service, follow up and persistence in following the recruiting process has allowed them to be successful in filling key roles within our organization. – Ken Recko, Vice President of Operations

If you would like to learn more about how we can infuse athlete-candidates into your organization with the traits Ken outlined above, click here to schedule a meeting with our team!

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What is Your Company Doing to Change Job Seeker Perception?

How often does your company do an internal audit of how you are corresponding with job seekers? The answer to this question, for most companies, is not very often—and it could be one of the main reasons your company is having difficulty attracting top-tier talent for your organization.

A recent study released by research firm “Future Workplace” echoed this sentiment, as many job seekers reported having a poor overall experience during their job search. No, it wasn’t the overwhelming number of job alerts they receive from job boards that they complained about though, it was the experience with the actual employer after they had applied for the job that had job seekers discouraged.

According to their study, which surveyed 1,200 respondents (826 job seekers and 374 employers), 60 percent of job seekers reported a bad candidate experience while applying for jobs. This wasn’t the only relevant data point from the article, here are a few others that really stood out and should be of major concern to companies.

  • Of the 60 percent of job seekers who reported a bad experience, “72% report having shared that experience online on an employer review site, such as Glassdoor, on a social networking site, or directly with a colleague or friend.”
  • In regard to communication post-application, “65% of job seekers say they never or rarely receive notice from employers.”
  • “80% of job seekers say they would be discouraged to consider other relevant job openings at a company that failed to notify them of their application status. Yet, they would be 3.5 times more likely to re-apply to a company if they were notified.”
  • “Fewer than half of employers re-engage declined candidates yet nearly all (99%) believe re-engaging will help them build their talent community and protect their employer brand.”
  • “While the typical job seeker spends about 3 to 4 hours preparing and submitting one job application, the typical employer spends less than 15 minutes reviewing that application. About 70% of employers believe job seekers spend only 1 hour or less in researching, preparing for, and submitting their job application.”

The full article had plenty of more eye-popping statistics about the candidate experience from their research, but these were some of the most important in my eyes. Let’s dive a little deeper at the potential impact of this on your company.

Are reviews killing your company image?

According to the data above, 72 percent of those who reported a bad experience are discussing it online, on social networks or with friends. With our society advancing into a non-stop sharing platform thanks to social media and easy utilization of the internet—you need to spend more time reading what people think of your brand.

Many of you reading this probably have not looked for a job recently, but reading company reviews have become a vital part of the research and review process for candidates now. From personal experience, I would not apply to a company that has a negative review on a website like Glassdoor, without doing more investigating into the culture. Simply, if other people are posting about their bad experiences, why would I as a job seeker want to go there?

While it is difficult to control the overall experience and what people are posting, companies need to make sure they are putting their best foot forward from first interaction.

This is actually something that one of our project coordinators here at NexGoal was telling me earlier today is a common complaint from job seekers he works with, It is also one of the reasons they turn to him as a recruiter to help facilitate their search. Put simply, many were turned off by the first point of contact at organizations and were no longer interested in the position. If they are reporting it to him, how many more job seekers out there are telling the same to their friends and social media about that same negative experience?

Want to learn more about the NexGoal Corporate Client Experience? Click here!

Communication is key…and you are likely dropping the ball!

Interview Mistakes

The least you could do is tell them they weren’t selected for the job.

How many times have you stressed to your employees that communication is key? It is probably written on a white board somewhere in your office, in a handbook or on a piece of artwork hanging on wall. Yet despite this fact, many of us do not practice what we preach—and the data shows it.

In the day and age of auto-responder emails, if your company does not (at a bare minimum) have an automated message going out when someone submits an application—you are doing it all wrong. From there, someone in your human resources department should be coordinating with marketing to send up a follow-up email once you have selected a candidate.

Listen, we are not telling you to send out a detailed reason for not selecting them. But how difficult is it really to send them something along the lines of, “Thank you for your interest in (insert position name here). After careful consideration, we have selected a candidate we think best fits our needs. Though we did not select you for this position, we urge you to check back for other open positions in our company because we think you could be a fit in the future!”

Most candidates are going to be frustrated they were not selected, but this simple communication shows the door could be open one day, which goes a long way. Do you have to take them for a job in the future? That is completely up to you, but what this does is leave the candidate with a sense of closure on the position they applied for—and a positive story to tell their friends when they are all done, which could be the difference between a positive and negative social review.

Re-engagement is a necessity

Now that you have sent them the positive “they were not selected” message, what do you do with these candidates and their contact information? Well, according to the data above—not enough.

As someone who has spent many years in the email marketing industry, re-engagement campaigns are so vital to your organization. If you are not attempting to grow your database, you will continue to decline from those who unsubscribe—because unsubscriptions are inevitable.

In the job industry, the same theory applies. Those who applied to your job previously will eventually get jobs, thus reducing the size of your future candidate pool. However, you never know when they are willing to switch jobs or become unemployed—so stop dismissing them just because you did not hire them the first time around!

Save all of their contact information with your notes in an excel document, and put them on a monthly or quarterly email distribution list with your latest jobs. Or send them out an email asking if they would like to be notified about future job openings. Once again, just a little communication could go a long way.

Your candidates are doing research…and it is time to acknowledge that

Many of us come from the days of mass applications on every job board just trying to get hired. Unfortunately, what this did was create a mentality of thinking job seekers do not actually care where they get hired and are not putting in the effort to get hired.

However as time has gone on, job seekers became frustrated with being just a “number” that was being pre-screened by software and not a person—so they started doing more research. Job seekers began identifying the companies they wanted to work for through this process, and learned more about a company to prepare for their first meeting, so take notice!

Give job seekers more than the 15 minutes you have been giving them in the past. Click the link on their resume that goes to their LinkedIn account, read the cover letter they sent in and do a little research of your own. Just because their resume does not say “10 years of sales experience” does not mean they may not meet your 10-12 years of relevant experience requirement on the job description. You may be passing on your next great hire if you do not dig a little deeper.

Bonus Tip: Market your company to the candidate

Back in the day (I’ve always wanted to say that), most employers were able to get by with the standard job description—because job seekers were easily flocking to them. Then this crazy thing happened, job seekers got smart and realized they wanted to find a place that was a good fit for them before applying for the job.

For those doing the hiring, this means they were no longer getting top candidates to apply because that person could not find out why they should come work for their company in the job description. Every company wants to tell you what they want in an employee, but what they fail to realize is they need to sell to that potential employee as well.

Go and pull up a current job posting for your company and read it over. Would you be motivated to spend an hour or so applying for a job after reading it? More than likely your answer is no—so add a “Company Culture” section or a “Why You Should Work Here” section. You may think it is cheesy, but a potential candidate will appreciate it, and it just could land you that top-tier talent you have been missing out on all these months since your job posting went live.

Struggling to market your company? Let NexGoal help find the candidate you need! Set-up a meeting today!

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