Straight From the Horse's Mouth:Recruiter/Hiring Manager Dos and Don'ts For Non-Profit Job-Hunters

At a job fair today, I talked to a bunch of hiring managers and HR people and asked what the biggest dos and don'ts were from their perspective. I've heard and written about some of their answers before, but it was reassuring to know that we're on the same wave length! 

TURN-OFFS

1. "What does your company do?" While no one expects you to have memorized everything a company does, especially when there are dozens of companies at a career fair, it's a turn-off to ask a recruiter "tell me what your company does" and sort of make him/her do all the work.  A better question: "Tell me about your role at the company and the role of the person your hiring for (if it's an HR person.)"  "Tell me about a typical day in this position at your company." Do you see the difference here? You can glean a lot of information from the answers to these more specific questions.

2. Up-Talk. I was thrilled to hear this. I advise all my clients and students to watch their inflection. You don't want to offer statements as if they are questions. You need to sound confident and positive. Don't recite your experience? As if everything on your resume is a question? For me to validate? Get a friend to listen to you recite answers to mock interview questions and use hand signals so you can be aware when you are inflecting up and when you are inflecting down or remaining neutral. Questions inflect up at the end; statements down or neutral.

3. Not Knowing What You Want to Do. While you may not know exactly what you want to do, you don't want to sound wishy-washy and as if you'll do anything. Find out what openings are available FIRST and then try to speak to your interest  in those openings and your qualifications for them. 

4. Not following up with an e-mail and thank you. I hear recruiters say this over and over. If you follow up, you have raised your chances of being called in for an interview considerably. As one HR person said, "Follow-up is a key component of the job we're hiring for. If the candidate can't even follow up after an interview, this is indicative of what we might expect on the job."

TURN-ONS

1. Coming armed with info about the company. Recruiters told me over and over that if someone came having looked at their website (and said so! "I was looking at your website and I noticed..I wondered...") and knowing a little about what they did, this gave the candidate a big leg up.

2. Looking the recruiter in the eye and introducing yourself--not just shoving a resume into someone's hands and running off. One recruiter said he preferred that the candidate wait until he stuck out his hand to offer to shake hands but he was the only one.

3. Bringing a resume. This surprised me; it didn't occur to me that people would go to a job fair without one!

4. Dressing Professionally. Again, a surprise to me. Recruiters confirmed that it's good to err on the side of being conservative and understanding that a job interview is a professional situation and you need to dress accordingly. Wear the suit or the equivalent, even if you'll never have to wear a suit again!

These don't apply just to a job fair, of course...they're just good job-hunting tips--from the mouths of those who are actually hiring!