What Drives Recruiters CRAZY?
As a Career Advisor and Manager of our Employer Relations team, I talk to employers all year. The employers that come on campus come for a reason - they think Tufts students make great employees. We take every opportunity to pump them for information about what the Career Center can do better to prepare our students, and we try to give our students that information. Rather than paraphrasing what we have heard, I recently polled some of our partners and asked them to send us their pet peeves.
Over the next several weeks we will share things that students do (not Tufts students obviously) during the recruitment process that really bother recruiters. Each blog post will cover a component of the recruitment process. Since the Career Fair is coming up on September 30, we'll start with some very general comments from employers and move into Career Fair Pet Peeves. Make sure you avoid doing any of the things on this list. Each comment was written by an industry professional. We have indicated names or titles when given permission to do so. The comments in blue are mine.
PET PEEVES, IN GENERAL
A pet peeve of mine is . . . "When candidates have a weak handshake, I always find that a little off-putting. Someone with a strong handshake makes a better first impression and seems much more confident."
This is true at Career Fairs, when meeting someone at networking events and even when introducing yourself to someone on a bus.
I hate it when . . ."Candidates aren’t prepared to give project (real life) examples."
"My pet peeve is . . . candidates who apply “enmasse” and don’t take time to tailor their application to my opening. This can be a direct email with no content except their resume, an online application with a cover letter that isn’t specific to our opening or a resume with an objective line that looks like it was done for another position." Sharon Stewart, Director of Human Resources at DN Tanks
CAREER FAIR PET PEEVES
"One pet peeve would certainly be NOT having a hard copy of their resume, or when somebody tells me that’s it’s the only one they have but it’s not totally up-to-date." Recruiter from a Career Fair Sponsor
In other words . . . come to the fair ready to be at the fair. Not every organization will want your resume, but you must have an up-to-date version for anyone who asks. Some recruiters don’t care if you don’t know about the company (see next comment), while others do. Check on Jumbo Jobs or through the Career Fair mobile app (Tufts CFPlus) for quick company descriptions. Even better, do your homework on your top 10 employers.
"While I don’t mind as much when a student has not done homework on what EVERY company (at the fair) does, their hesitation to come out and ASK drives me crazy. Most (students) are very shy and it’s hard to pull info out of them! I remember the students who have that certain confidence and can sell their skills to me, so I can sell THEM to the hiring managers!" Recruiter from a Career Fair Sponsor
"It's frustrating when a candidate comes up and has no idea what the company does. If they're a freshman or sophomore, maybe it's okay, but if they are seriously considering the company for an internship or job, they should have taken the time to at least do a google search." Anonymous Recruiter
"Another pet peeve is being asked about compensation. It certainly raises flags about a person's motivations if it is brought up too early in the recruiting process. I'd think that if you make it to a final interview round it may be appropriate to be discussed, but certainly not at a career fair. At large companies, many of the alumni representatives don't have much to do with that portion of the recruiting anyway, so the answer you get probably won't be worth the damage to the initial impression (you are making)." Anonymous Recruiter
Look for the next installment of Employer Pet Peeves. I will cover what not-to-do in cover letters and LinkedIn.
Robin Kahan is the Associate Director, Employer Relations
and Engineering in the Tufts Career Center and a Tufts Alumna. Prior to Tufts, Robin spent 21 years at
Analog Devices in progressive Human Resources roles, the most recent being
World-Wide Manager of College Relations.
She likes to say that she just changed sides of the desk when she moved
to the Tufts Career Center. Robin has an MBA with
a concentration in Human Resources from the Johnson School at Cornell
University and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Tufts University.
