Red Flags In Recruiters’ Eyes of Type III: Other Suspicious Behaviors That Suggest Difficult Personality.

Lastly, recruiters seek candidates who not only represent top-notch professional skills but are also easy-going at work, likeable, and pleasant to work with. Therefore, they look for diligent people with kind personalities, and they will not welcome the following behaviors:

1. Coming Late or Missing an Interview.

Punctuality is one of the worst possible qualities, especially in fast-paced working environments where professionals need to coordinate and synchronize their actions. Time is money! Therefore, if you are running late due to unpredictable circumstances, try to contact the recruiter as soon as possible and give them a notice or reschedule the meeting.

2. Coming To the Interview With Illness.

Secondly, if you come to the interview sick, for instance, suffering from flu, it won’t be taken as a sign of dedication, but rather, as a sign of lack of integrity. After all, you can infect people around you, including the recruiter! If you are sick, just excuse yourself, reschedule the interview, and stay home.

3. Inappropriate Outfit or Language.

Other obvious red flags in the recruiters’ eyes are language and outfits unfit for the occasion, especially too casual. If you come to the interview in an outfit that shows too much skin or feels like you are on the way to a football match, it will be taken as a faux pas. 

Similarly, if you speak in an overly informal way and use many casual words such as “like,” it won’t sound professional and will make a rather poor impression.

4. Being Overly Confident.

Feeling too much like home, for instance, stretching on your chair and sitting in a sloppy way as if you were sitting in your own living room, is not a good sign. To the recruiter, it might mean they have to deal with an overly difficult personality — someone who claims their space, quickly dominates other people and feels entitled.

5. Being Unprepared For the Interview.

The next red flag in the recruiters’ eyes is the lack of proper preparation for the interview. If you have no knowledge about the company’s mission or flagship products and services, what are you doing here?

Coming to the interview without required documentation is also a typical red flag. If you miss any important document, you should have a really good explanation of why.

6. Lying or Cheating.

The next “no-go” situation is when you are caught lying or being unreliable. For instance, not being able to repeat good scores in aptitude tests taken previously at home in the interview process, might be a sign of cheating to the recruiter. This is also why you should not ask your friends for help with online aptitude tests in the recruitment process.

And in general, recruiters with years of experience “in the business” get see through lies and embellishments easily. According to a broad 2019 State of the Recruiter study from Monster.com, 85% of the 1,700 participating recruiters revealed that they frequently interview candidates who embellished their skills and experience on their resumes. 

Only 30% of recruiters surveyed in the study described the majority of applicants as fairly honest about their professional expertise. And these truth-telling candidates obviously come across as individuals with higher work ethic and integrity than other applicants.

7. Upfront Requests and Demands.

If a candidate asks for conditions way too much before getting familiar with the job details and the company culture, it is a red flag to the recruiter. This behavior strongly suggests that the candidate is an entitled type only interested in material benefits from the job. This is not the motivation that recruiters look for.

8. Gossiping About Your Former Boss.

At the job interviews, you should tell the truth. But sometimes, it shouldn’t be the WHOLE truth. Even if your former boss was a monster to you, it won’t do you any good mentioning about it in the job interview. 

You need to be as diplomatic as possible and find a neutral euphemism to describe your relationship with your ex-boss, such as, for instance, “We had different working styles.” Otherwise, you will harm your own job opportunities.

9. Lack of Ownership Over Past Mistakes or Experiences.

Similarly, if you blame other people and external circumstances for all the hiccups in your career, it is a red flag for the recruiter. They would rather hear, 

“You know, when I was in my early twenties, I could not properly prioritize my actions, that’s why I studied one year longer than I should’ve. But I learned my lessons from this experience!”

Rather than:

“I got ill, my partner left me, I was depressed, my parents were divorcing…”

10. Inability To Listen.

A job interview should be a two-sided conversation, not just a monologue. Interrupting the recruiter or inability to finish your responses to questions in a reasonable time won’t look good at the interview. Again, this might be a sign that it’s a pain working with you as you are the type of person who needs to always have the last word and always be right.

11. Not Asking Questions.

Similarly, not asking questions is an alarming sign to the recruiter. It might mean that you are looking for any job rather than this particular job, and you don’t even care who you work for, as an employer is just a cash machine for you. Therefore, not asking any questions is a sign of wrong motivation.

12. Errors In Resumes and in Email Communication.

In the application procedure, it is essential to prepare an impeccable resume; it will represent you and stay on the Hiring Manager’s desk until the end of the recruitment process. Make sure that you create a resume using professional tools and design your resume in a simple yet elegant way. 

Moreover, sloppiness in your application documents and in your email correspondence will also be taken as a warning signal. Even if you are dyslectic, there are free apps such as Grammarly that you can use. Therefore, nothing can excuse large numbers of typos and grammatical mistakes in your correspondence with the recruiter other than sloppiness and lack of care.