8 Secrets of Hiring Managers

By Alison Green

Hiring managers see a lot of job applicants make the same mistakes over and over again, many of which are easily preventable if only applicants knew how hiring managers operate. Here are eight things that hiring managers wish all job candidates knew – both to help them hire more easily and to end some of the frustration for job-seekers.

1. You can ruin your chances by being too aggressive. When you're searching for a job, enthusiasm helps. But some job applicants cross the line from enthusiastic to annoying or pushy – and in doing so, kill their chances for a job offer. If you're doing any of the following, you've crossed the line and may turn off hiring managers who might otherwise consider hiring you: Dropping off your résumé in person when the job posting instructs you to apply online, checking on the status of your application more than once within three weeks, repeatedly calling and hanging up when you get voicemail or cold-contacting numerous employees at the company to try to get extra attention paid to your résumé.

2. We really want you to be honest. Too many job seekers approach job searching as if their only goal is to win a job offer, losing sight of the fact that this can land them in the wrong job. But if you're honest – with yourself and with your interviewer – about your strengths and weaknesses and if you give the hiring manager a glimpse of the real you, you'll both be able to make a better informed decision about how well you'd do in the job. (Of course, if you just need a job at any costs, this might not resonate with you, but if you want a job where you'll excel and be happy, it should.)

3. You don't get to choose your references. You might think that employers will only call the references on the list you provide, but in fact, they may call anyone you've worked for or who might know you, on your list or not. In fact, smart reference-checkers will make a point of calling people not on your list, since they assume you've only listed people who you know will speak of you glowingly.

4. No matter how positive things seem, you shouldn't count on a job offer. No matter how confident you are that an employer wants to hire you, you never have a job offer until you have a firm – preferably written – offer in hand. That's true no matter what an interviewer says to you, even if they say things like, "You'll be great at this," "We're excited to work with you" or "You're exactly what we're looking for." None of those things means that an offer is coming, no matter how encouraging they sound.

Secrets 5-8 and the complete USNews article