Impressing Your Future Employer: Dos and Don'ts

Tom Harrison, of QS Careers and Global Workplace takes a sideways glance at the dos and don’ts of trying to impress your future employer.

If you haven’t yet seen the movie ‘Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ you might want to skip to the next section of this article because I’m about to spoil it for you.

If you have seen it, you’ll know that our once-credible hero manages to escape the rather nasty effects of a nuclear bomb going off by…hiding in a refrigerator.

Yes, you read it right. And, no, they don’t teach that in Survival 1.0.

This remarkable scene has so enraged dedicated Indie-watchers that they have created a new turn of phrase from it. To ‘nuke the fridge’ means ‘to abandon past standards of quality.’ In other words, to undermine all the good work that has gone before. If you don’t believe me, Google it.

You have probably spent a lot of time and energy building your career to get to your current position. Sure, you have probably taken a wrong turn here or there but the overall line on the graph has been upward, right?

You’re now considering studying for, or have recently graduated with, an MBA or other Masters degree because your career needs to move to the next level up. This is smart, but…

Beware! Don’t nuke the fridge!

The career path is a treacherous one and there are many potential pot-holes along the way. Let’s see how we can avoid any nasty sprained ankles

First impressions count.

This is a fact. When you get behind the scenes a little bit a lot of recruiters will tell you they have a gut instinct about a candidate’s potential fit for a role within minutes or even seconds of meeting them. Some will tell you they can get a very good impression of an applicant just from their resume and cover letter – and we’re not talking about the content here; we’re talking about style.

One MBA recruiter at a major multinational told me; “I get hundreds of applications for my management programs and some of the emails are so badly presented I don’t even open the resumes attached”.

Your application is your first impression – so make it count. If you’re ‘too busy’ firing off hundreds of applications to worry about the presentation, think again – “One of the most common mistakes is to send a generic cover letter telling me all about the candidate but referring to ‘your company’ rather than naming it. I immediately know the candidate hasn’t done any research and that’s simply not good enough’, continues our anonymous insider.

And it’s not just applications where those first impressions count; it’s those vital opening minutes of the first face-to-face interview.

“I walked into the interview room and the guy was holding his briefcase in one hand and a soaking umbrella in the other. He hadn’t taken his equally wet raincoat off and he looked, frankly, dishevelled. Confused by the lack of a free hand, when I offered mine in greeting, he dropped the briefcase on his foot, yelped, and then closed his eyes in a mixture of embarrassment and anxiety. He didn’t get the job.”

You don’t say! And that was for a senior role at a globally-recognised consumer goods company!

Here are a few more interview clangers that our industry insiders advise you to avoid:

Lying: Now this really is a massive no-no. There’s a big difference between being ‘economical with the truth’ by omitting your brief spell as a pole dancer from your resume, compared with making up significant chunks of your professional or educational experience. It’s not just the job you might miss out on; it’s your reputation in the industry sector – people talk.

Negativity: ‘Anyone slating their previous employers immediately gets a big question mark by their name…’ says a recruitment manager at an investment bank, ‘…even if it’s one of our competitors!’ Recruiters always worry about negativity – is this what you are going to be like in their culture?

Inappropriate clothing: Here I am telling you all this when I myself once attended a first interview in a Dinner Jacket. I’d got dressed in a hurry and I thought I was following the classic advice that a black suit never lets you down. Only I grabbed the wrong combination and turned up looking like James Bond gone-badly-wrong.

Acting desperate: You really want the job – that’s great. But it’s not the only option available. Show how much you want it by demonstrating your level of knowledge about the company and its products and services, but also use your knowledge of its competitors and the industry in general to hint at your general employability. Interviewers ask about your other options very regularly – don’t be fooled into thinking that telling them ‘This is the only one for me’ is a winning response.

Being generally unprepared: From the opening handshake and ice-breaking through to your understanding of the company you need to have it all planned. Preparation leads to self-confidence and that in turn leads to the best interview results. “It was all going great until they asked me for an example of a successful management project I had initiated and overseen – I just couldn’t think. In retrospect there were literally dozens of cases I could have quoted but I hadn’t planned for the question and I just froze”, says a Sales Director from a media company.

Worried yet? You shouldn’t be. Your career is incredibly important to you and you already spend a massive amount of time on it. Invest some of that good stuff when you are searching for, applying for, and interviewing for your next role, and you’ll be fine.

There is a whole world of advice available to you via careers services, social and professional networks and, of course, the internet. In fact, one of the very best sources of MBA & Masters-specific careers information comes from the very same people who bring you this TopMBA Careers Guide:

Check out www.global-workplace.com or www.topmba.com/careers for advice on everything from perfecting your resume to choosing your ideal employer.

Get it right and the only time you’ll be needing that fridge will be to chill the bubbles when you’re celebrating accepting the job of your dreams!