Simple Remedies for Common But Awful Job-Hunting Blunders

Simple Remedies for Common But Awful Job-Hunting BlundersSimple Remedies for Common But Awful Job-Hunting BlundersLooking for a job is stressful for even the most prepared career seeker. Often the pressure of making the perfect first impression combined with the Murphys Law-aspect of life results in mistakes. Here are four ways to make amends after your job-seeking errors.1. Catching an error in yourrsumafter you already submitted it. Few things are as frustrating as realizing you have a mistakein yourrsumthat is now in a hiring managers hands. Lets be clear its a must tothoroughly proofread a printedrsumat least three separate times before sending it, to prevent errors. However, the only move remaining after sending abotchedrsumis to send an email asking that the reader Please use theattached updatedrsum. Resist the urge to include an explanation of your error or why you have made a change. Youcan include a simple, My apologies for the inconvenience. Thank you. Anything more than t hat is too much. The stickler manager may still pass on yourrsumbecause you made a mistake, but the everybody-is-humanmanager may actually appreciate that you caught your mistake, owned it and remedied it. The clueless manager is likely notto notice or care either way.2. Bad reception during your phone interview. Phone connection issues occur to job seekers and recruiters alike. However, suffering through an unintelligible call will almost always result in a poor interview. Dont let your bad connection result in no professional connection. Whether it is your fault or the interviewers, acknowledge that the reception isnt clear and ask the interviewerif one ofyou can call the other one right back. If you have access to a landline in a private setting, use that number instead. No interviewer wants to suffer through unnecessary awkward silence or the wasted time caused by an interviewee who cannot hear the question or misunderstood what was said. Address the problem quickly to salvage y our phone interview.3. Running late to an interview. It happens. It is better if it doesnt, but tardiness is an unfortunate partee of being a busy (or ill prepared) job seeker. The first thing to do as soon as you realize that youre going to be late is get a message to the interviewer that youre running behind. You also need to ask if the delayed timing will still work for the interviewer. Be prepared that you may get to the interview and be asked to wait for a long time or be told the meeting will be rescheduled to another date/time. But, no matter what the penalty, its critical that you display your consideration of the interviewers time by alerting him or her to the delay immediately. As with thersumerror, resist the urge to give a longexplanation or to concoct a dog-ate my-car-keys excuse. A speedy and short update is your best defense. 4. Forgetting to send a thank-you note. After aphone, Skype or in-person interview, it is expected that the interviewee send a note to the inter viewer thanking him for his time. Thank-you-note slackers can rejoice in the knowledge that many job seekers have no idea they need to send a note or have no intention of doing so. Similarly, we should all drive the speed limit, yet many of us dont although we recognize the penalty for getting caught is an expensive ticket. Skipping out on a thank-you note is similar. Although many people do not send a thank you, prepare to be denied an offerif you happen to interview with a manager that views this as a critical part of the process. If you realize a week or two after your interview that you really should send a note, send one as soon as you recognize your error. Its never too late to thank someone for his or her time and remind him or her of your continued interest in the job. Youll find some managers that will hold the tardiness against you but that same manager would have denied you all together if you never send a note. Most other hiring authorities will have the same opinion of you or better after receiving your note. It is a chance worth taking. In summary, mistakes happen while job seeking. Most often, things go better if you are swift, short and honest in your response. Choose responses that show you are considerate of the interviewers time and know how to use professional restraint when digging yourself out of a hole. Blunders happen but what you do next truly defines your character.