I recently received 100+ resumes in response to a job posting at my company and I was amazed at how little applicants pay attention to important details.
In case you were wondering why you didn’t get the job, here are my top reasons for why you didn’t get a call back.
- You attached (and sent) your college research paper instead of your resume.
- You didn’t indicate the position you were applying for. Companies do have multiple positions available at one time.
- You made it impossible to schedule an in person interview with you. I don’t have time to go through your list of reasons as to why you can’t make it in to see me.
- You had grammatical errors on your resume and cover letter.
- You had a weak handshake.
- You had poor eye contact.
- You had no questions for me about the role, company, culture, etc.
- You didn’t take the time to Google me and find out about my professional career. I’m pretty active with career advice tips so if you took the time to read through my tips, he or she would have aced the interview.
- You didn’t articulate how your skills/talents were relevant to the open position.
- You didn’t follow up after the interview.
- Your parting plea to me was “Pick me!” (yes a candidate said this to me on his way out)
Not having a firm handshake and not making eye contact as reasons not to hire someone will get you sued. Both are symptoms of disabilities that are legally protected.
Yes, you are 100% correct. Thank you for taking the time to point this out. Poor choice in my words but meant to suggest why they might not have gotten a call back for second round of interviews. Having a sibling with special needs I’m particularly sensitive to and aware of not so apparent disabilities and can read a situation fairly well. My experience in interviewing individuals who either have a weak handshake or poor eye contact came from being indifferent to the job at hand (again, should have clearly noted this).