#jobseekers: What are some of the biggest red flags in an interviewee?

Top Billing Headhunter, Career Coach, CEO and Founder, Dandan Global

As a headhunter since I was 23 and now owner of recruitment agency, these are the top red flags in an interviewee that will ruin the chances of making it to the offer stage:

#1. Having a personal statement that isn’t well communicated.

Being that “tell me about yourself” is most likely the first question any interviewer will ask you, this is a common area where interviewees immediately shed a tiny bit of light into who they are and their caliber of communication and perhaps mental state. You’d either sound like you could be president level or junior staff level simply by how you represent and summarize yourself.

When someone starts their soliloquy with “Well, I grew up in …” I immediately know I am speaking to a non-commercially minded candidate. Succinct, strategic, and go-getter-type candidates generally have a much clearcut, logical, and direct professional summary, instead of a mindless hodgepodge of self-regarded fun and interesting facts which may not be relevant or appropriate within the first few minutes of meeting someone in an interview setting.

TIP 1: Create your personal statement beforehand by reading, watching , and listening to. Make sure you don’t start off on the wrong foot by sounding naive, weak, junior, unimpressive, lacking leadership capabilities or worse yet, not bright enough.

TIP 2: To those who want to seem ‘relatable’ and ‘fun’ and ‘personable’, my argument is you can save the fun facts for later! You have literally the whole entire interview to showcase your personality. My sincere advice is to be strategic from the very outset and focus on the structure of the summary, don’t deviate.

#2. Attitude problems and making assumptions.

Shortly into any conversation or meeting with any candidate, we can quickly start sniffing out their attitude and outlook towards life. Are they optimistic or pessimistic? Friendly, sociable, defensive, arrogant, or possess a mean streak? Assuming, a know-it-all or inquisitive and patient?

Throughout the interview process, a candidate will inevitably display small signals, ask questions, and say seemingly offhand comments that betray their underlying character traits. These small behaviors could, at best, prove a candidate’s trustworthiness, dependability, and capability to succeed. At worst, we may notice true red flags like micro-aggressions, arrogance, lack of self-awareness, refusal to listen to others, lack of team orientation, and over-estimation of one’s worth and capability.

TIP: When we see what we may have not bargained to see, we must fully acknowledge our gut read of the situation and make sure to further question around any red flags we notice until we either can resolve the objection or reject the candidate with certainty.

#3. Unreasonable expectations without fair intentions of taking the role.

When a candidate assumes they know everything and want everything their way, it’s unlikely they would a. join your firm happily and b. survive long-term as a good fit. Similar to #2, their attitude and entitlement or lack thereof is more important than their technical prowess. I’d rather hire someone with a great personality than someone with stronger technical skills and a poorer attitude.

Whether the topic is money, commute, career plans, relo expectations, or long-term vision, as an employer, I’m looking for people who come to work with an actual alignment to my investment into them. Since this post is geared towards permanent recruitment, it’s unfair to go to work in bad faith. I.e. I’m only doing this job because it pays well, I don’t actually care about this business or the people that work here.

That kind of employee isn’t ideal. Are people like that all around us? Yes, but ideally that’s not who we set out to find. Furthermore, I would question those professionals, why be a full-time employee with that already negative and entitled one-sided attitude? They would be better off contracting or performing consulting services where it’s more of a mercenary setup and relationship.

Philosophically, while some jobs are regarded as worse than others, it’s all relative and it’s a choice that one can influence. If you don’t like a certain job, there are certain things you can do to mobilize out of being stuck to one job for the rest of your life.

TIP: Thus, the question then becomes, why don’t you find a job you care about? Once you find the job you care about, then we can have a fair conversation about entitlement and mutual investment into the job and the person. I fully believe my client and candidate both have an equal right to a great fit.

#4. Lack of transparency.

Good humans, while very different, tend to have the same trait of being truthful and trustworthy. When I ask a reasonable question and explain why I expect to know certain things about you, my dear candidate, I fully expect an answer. When candidates are dodgy, scared, defensive, or refusing to share, I immediately will be en garde.

The reason is I’m putting out - why are they not? I’m being straightforward about what I can do and what I offer, why do they get to completely hide their side of the equation? How is that fair? In many cases, if I find a pattern of evasion, I’ll call the candidate out and resolve it. If they refuse to be communicative and straightforward with me, I’ll reject representation of this candidate. Plenty of excellent fish in the sea, I don’t need to put up with entitled candidates.

In my position as a headhunter and external recruiter, I have the added advantage of being able to see deeper into candidates’ motivations and their modus operandi unencumbered by their efforts to conceal their true being. Because I’m not a representative of any firm as an internal recruiter or HR, candidates let down their guard. I get to truly see who they are and how they treat people without the filter candidates put on when speaking to hiring managers or internal staff directly.

This helps me control the quality of candidate I’ll choose to represent. If someone is not likable or a genuinely nice person to me, I doubt my clients would see this any differently. My job is to save them the pain and suffering of dealing with unsavory characters.

In Conclusion

Most people, especially in senior roles or in hiring positions, will know a thing or two about judging people. The solution to any red flag you may possess is to become a better person, worker, and human in society. Working on your character flaws helps avoid others discovering your red flags.

When you treat the janitor as nice as the CEO, when you let bygones be bygones, accept flaws and mistakes by yourself and others, show gratitude to great people, and are generous to those around you, you’ll naturally be a happier, more positively-minded, and conscientious hire. Inevitably, you’ll be hired and become a standout hire no matter what job, what seniority, or where you’ll work!

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