How to Lose a Job Before You Are Even Hired
Don’t think for a minute that a potential employer stops at just reviewing a resume, conducting a personal interview or running a background check when searching for a new employee. It’s those insignificant parts of your life that you don’t think about that can come back to haunt you.
First scenario: A highly qualified man interviews for a sales position at a major electronics company. His resume is impeccable, his skills highly desirable, and his references unimpeachable. A thorough background check didn’t uncover any skeletons, and he seems the perfect candidate for the job. Just for fun, the human resources manager “googles” the candidate’s name.
Here’s where it gets interesting. A personal Web page is found complete with compromising photos of him indulging in questionable nightlife activities. His blog includes entries where he blasts his current employer and brags about how much actual work he doesn’t do.
That resume went directly into the circular file.
Remember, whatever you post on the Internet is considered public information and available to, not just a limited number of your friends, but to potentially millions, if not billions, of other people.
No employer wants to be held up to ridicule by someone who is considered a loyal and valued employee. Equally disturbing is an employee who engages in deviant behavior. A drink now and again after work isn’t inappropriate; however, posting a photo, or several photos, on the Internet of you passed out in a bar is.
Most businesses have a Code of Conduct clause as part of their employment policy. Why hire someone who violates that Code before a job is offered?
Second scenario: Another seemingly perfect candidate applies for a position with a home health agency. The woman has an excellent work history and glowing letters of recommendation from her former clients.
The interview went well and a job offer is being drafted. The personal manager looks for her e-mail address to ask her back into the office for a second interview. The only problem is her e-mail address - manmagnet@homewrecker.com. This is not exactly the image the agency wants for its employees.
Another resume gets tossed.
It is important to realize that as a potential employee, you are more than the sum of your parts. It isn’t enough to have the right education, the right job history and the right people saying you’re a great person. You also have a personal image to protect and if it is even a little over the top, it can hurt your chances for future jobs.
Third scenario: A recent college graduate applied for an entry-level job at a well-established financial institution. He was attending a university several hundred miles away and so far has been interviewed exclusively over the telephone. He made an appointment to finally come in for his first face-to-face talk with department heads.
When he arrives, he is dressed in a conservative gray suit, his hair is stylishly cut and he looks like the poster boy for GQ magazine. So, what’s the problem? The executives who are conducting the interview are old school and the tribal tattoos peeking out from under his collar are a definite deal breaker.
Unnatural hair colors and coifs that were part of your collegiate persona, and the visible tattoos or body piercings that you just had to have may project an image that is not the one your new boss wants from his employees. A dress codes does not always mean wearing a suit and tie, or dress. It means portraying a certain image, and body art typically does not fit that image.
According to a recent survey conducted by Vault.com, an online career management service, the majority of managers questioned - 58 percent - said they would be less likely to hire someone who had visible tattoos or piercings.
Of the 500 readers who took the survey, 18 percent of workers and 24 percent of managers believed their body art had adversely affected their careers. Nearly 67 percent of employees surveyed reported hiding their tattoos while at work.
A hiring practice that is biased against people with tattoos or non-ear piercings, or questionable judgment, isn’t considered discrimination because the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission only prohibits hiring prejudices based on age, sex, race, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, creed or religion.
Before you get that tattoo or pierce your eyebrow, before you decide to advertise your off-hour habits over the Internet or chose a suggestive e-mail address, think about whether those choices could be detrimental to future employment opportunities. It may not be fair that these aspects of your life would be counted against you, especially since most would not interfere with job performance - the truth is they are.