Employers are hoping that they will never see or experience anyone’s career skeletons under any circumstances. Yet, there are job seekers who can’t help showing his or her dark side of professional traits.
You think bad manners, being late, or lacking skill sets are bad? I dug up some attributes that can chase your chances away. Here are some of these scary characteristics that scare potential employers:
1. Vampires Victor Verbose and Loquacious Lady
It is not OK for a candidate to talk too much. Be honest with yourself by accepting the honesty of others in this area. This is a hire killer. You can communicate well if you talk too much but do you tell too much. The worst scenario is talking too much and not saying much. The best of us who communicate well are still conscious enough to practice interviewing. Better yet, if you network regularly, consider that as a dry run of how you demonstrate concise and well-developed thoughts.
2. Bad Bored Boris
Let’s see, your 30 years old, transitioning jobs, and no one has told you that your monotone speaking voice is annoying? If you are an accountant who works alone for most of a 12 hour day, no problem. If you are interviewing for a facilitator of workshops, you’re doomed. Work on being a dynamic conversationalist, not so much a public speaker. Use inflections, different volumes, and different tones of your voice in a single conversation. Again, networking is a great training ground to start a new way of relating to people.
3. The Goblin of Over-reactive Ophelia
If you are known to bring the drama for someone’s mama, then this will likely follow you around for life unless you scale back your descriptions of situations, people, and things. Your voice is full of theatrics, but mainly you talk loudly and explicitly. It doesn’t help that you exaggerate and no one trusts your judgment.
4. Horrific Harry the Hippie (Shout out to Bobby Womack)
Your attitude may say 2012, but your clothes say 1971. Your smile is infectious, but your tie is an impediment to your outfit and the interviewer. Mr. or Ms. Interview enjoys your personality, but your responses to questions are SLOOWWW! Energy and relevance are critical in a day that bigger, faster, smarter means everything.
5. The Ghost of Carol the Colloquialism Queen
If you cannot tell the difference between proper and acceptable grammar and how you speak to your friends, then you will have problems immediately. No one will tell you that you’re wrong EXCEPT your Mom and Dad. Listen to your parents. I don’t care if you have the college degree and they don’t. Listen to them tell you to relate to people as close to proper English as possible.
6. The Silhouette of Sexy Sarah
Girl, you got it going on…somewhere else besides the workplace. Being misunderstood is a nightmare, and sending the wrong messages as the first impression is hard to redeem. If your tone of voice or the vocabulary you use is somewhat suggestive, it is time to change. NEXT!
7. The Coffin of Cynical Sam
The best new hires in any organization re-energizes his peers and colleagues. Cynicism doesn’t encourage or build up anyone, if anything, can destroy a team. If you have baggage from your past career experiences, leave them at home before the first interview.
Halloween is once a year, but for some job seekers, they scare employers several times a year. Can you relate to any of these characters? Please share which ones you’ve seen, or that you’ve been.
Happy Halloween!