The next time you walk into an interview, consider the following:
Your wedding or engagement ring? Can and may be used against you.
Those photos of kids on a hiring manager's desk? They may not
actually be the manager's children—but the photo is designed to get you talking
about your kids, or whether you plan to have some eventually.
And then there's the trick that can land some applicants $20,000
more when they start negotiating their salary.
In fact, LearnVest got the inside scoop from hiring managers
across the country. Many spoke on the condition of anonymity because their
methods were so controversial—and not what you'd find in any company manual.
(Plus, we have a special giveaway for you! Find out what it is at
the bottom of this post.)
Why do you need to know these secrets? Two reasons. The first is:
What you don't know can hurt your chances of landing a job and commanding a
higher salary. Second: Today, April 17th, is Equal Pay Day.
And new research out of the United States
Census Bureau shows that women still earn less than their
male counterparts at every education level. Although women are out-earning
men in terms of college degrees and doctorates, our wages aren't keeping up. In
fact, the gap only worsens at higher levels of education.
But armed with this insider knowledge—straight from the mouths of
those who hire you—you can help improve both these statistics and your bottom
line.
I leave pictures of kids on
my desk. They’re not even my kids.
Legally, hiring managers aren’t allowed to ask if you have kids,
just as they’re not supposed to
discriminate against you on the hunch that your child might occasionally have a
soccer game. But we spoke to one hiring manager who leaves pictures of her
niece and nephew to find out (legally) who has kids. “I’m not allowed to ask
about family situations, but if they bring it up, it’s fair game. Kids are a
distraction to this job, which requires long hours and weekends. I won’t hire
someone who has other priorities.”
How to handle this: It’s very easy to get nervous and resort to
small talk. (“Oh, are those your kids? How old? Mine are 6 and 10 ... ”)
Commenting on kids’ photos is easy bait, especially if you’re a parent
yourself, but avoid it if you can. Talk about the weather or find something to
compliment your interviewer on instead.
I check for wedding bands.
One hiring manager told us: “This is an entry-level
job, and the people we hire are usually fresh out of college. If I see a
wedding band, there’s a good probability that candidate is going to start a
family soon. If I hire her and she goes on maternity leave, I can’t legally
fire her, but I still have to find someone else to replace her while she’s
gone. When she comes back I can’t fire her either, so now I’m stuck with two
employees when all I needed was one. No thanks.”
This one is an easy fix: Leave your wedding ring at home. You're
not obligated to share any information about your relationship status, so try
to avoid doing so.
I regularly hire women for
65-75% what I pay men.
Half a century after the Women's Rights movement, the pay gap
still leaves women making 70% of what men make. Yet it was shocking to hear
part of the reason why straight from the mouths of hiring managers. The causes
are numerous, but if we had to narrow it down to one … women don’t negotiate
enough.
One manager offers men and women the same starting salary: “The
women simply accept, while the men negotiate. I would have essentially the same
candidate, the only difference being gender, and I was paying her $20,000
less.”
Some jobs are truly non-negotiable, like an entry-level role at
certain Fortune 100 companies. But far too often, people—especially women—leave
money, vacation time or benefits on the table needlessly.
I don’t hire old people.
Ageism is real. While this may be as simple as discrimination
against people who don’t seem as “with-it” as their younger counterparts, we
pressed harder for the root cause of why people really care about age. It comes
down to learning new technologies.
“Older people have a harder time adapting to newer technologies,
and I’d rather not spend the time training them,” one hiring manager confesses.
Casually let it slip that you’ve been working on gaining
proficiency in the latest technology in your field. Bringing this up lets the
interviewer know that you not only enjoy continuing to learn about the field,
but also have no problem adapting to new developments.
I prefer to hire someone
who’s currently employed.
It’s a Catch-22: Hiring managers often would rather hire someone
who currently has a job … but of course it’s the unemployed people who need
jobs the most. “If you’ve been unemployed for a long stretch of time, it makes
me wonder what’s wrong with you,” one hiring manager says.
How can you combat this bias? Continue your education, volunteer
your time at your favorite charity or even work or "consult" for free
so you have something to write down that may mask a gap on your résumé.
I’m looking for a reason
NOT to hire you.
The issue with so many applicants applying for so few jobs is that
hiring managers often look for reasons to exclude you rather than include you
as a potentially perfect candidate. A typo, a poorly formatted résumé or a low
GPA will often get you placed in the “no thanks” pile.
So, yes, you should perfect your application (then proofread it
again), but an even better bet is to circumvent the application process
altogether. It's estimated that 80% of jobs are found through personal
connections, so tap your network, including old bosses, college networks and
everyone you know (and they know) on LinkedIn. That will be the fastest way to
rise above a huge pile of competing résumés.
Don’t tell me your previous
salary. I’ll use it against you.
In the age of pensions, it was uncommon for people to leave jobs.
Now sometimes you have to look outside your own company to progress.
But your previous salary needn't follow you. While many companies
will ask what it was, you have every right to deflect the question by saying
you don't feel comfortable revealing it, or that your previous company
preferred you keep it confidential.
“We were interviewing one candidate for a senior manager position
and asked for her previous salary,” our source says. “She said she signed an
NDA [Non-Disclosure Agreement] to not reveal her previous salary. It was clever
because I couldn't press her for more info, and also respected her for
maintaining her integrity to her previous employer.”
One caveat: If it's a job you really want, and the company is
insisting, you may be smarter to divulge the number. Just explain that you're
looking for an increase (and name your percentage) given all of the skills that
you bring to the job in question
Don't apply online; you
won't get anywhere.
There are too many walls to cross and red flags to trigger when
you apply online. “We build our application process to weed out candidates, and
extract information like previous salary to use against them,” our source says.
“Applying online is a losing game.”
Once you find an open position online, don’t apply. Instead, do
some online stalking of the company’s website and LinkedIn to find out who you
might know there—or to find another way in. Namely, a human, rather than a blind
"submit your application" form. Then, send your résumé to that
contact directly and say you heard about this opening—and are interested in any
roles that match that particular criteria.
“I was interviewing candidates and narrowed it down to my top
three. Then the Creative Director sends me a résumé she received via
email," says one hiring manager we spoke to. "What was I going to do?
I had to bring her in for an interview. We ended up hiring that candidate.”
That hot guy you added on
Facebook last week? Yeah, that was me.
We’ve heard for years how important protecting your online image
can be and that companies may try to search for you before making a hiring
decision. What we haven’t heard are some of the ways they’ll get you to open up
your social media profile.
“I’ll add several of her friends, so we have several friends in
common, and then I’ll add her,” one hiring manager told us. “I now have access
to her profile, wall posts, status updates and even those photos from her trip
to Cancun she thought were private.”
I go through hundreds of
résumés a day and spend less than 30 seconds on each one.
Take an honest look at your résumé. If it isn’t easy to scan for
highlights, it’s not going to get you callbacks. One hiring manager at a
technology company writes:
"If I have to spend more than 30 seconds finding out what you
have accomplished, forget it … Likely, I will ignore the whole thing, write
down in my notes 'poor communicator,' and move on … If you can’t nail it in one
sentence, do I really want to look forward to your rambling emails every
day?
"To craft a great résumé, tailor it to my job posting. If I
have a skill set in there like 'Windows Administration,' make sure you have at
least one bullet point talking about … that skill."
If it’s a job you really care about, you should have multiple
people read over your application. It should be clear, concise and tailored
specifically to the job you want.
I have no clue what I’m
doing.
At the end of the day, it's important to remember that some hiring
managers are merely going through the motions. Their job is to get someone who
can do the job for the least amount of money. Despite their best efforts, they
may not be experienced interviewers, and even they may not know how many
ping-pong balls fit in a plane … or if the right answer correlates to doing the
best job.
But your best bet is to try to make your interviewer like you,
because she'll be more likely to pass on a glowing recommendation (or include
you in the résumé stack at all) even if she won't be making the ultimate
decision about whether you get the job.
