Job Ad Red Flags

You're perusing the want ads when you see a job you think would be just perfect, but should you apply? Here are a few things to think about when sending out those resumes. 

When you're searching for jobs, it's OK to have a wide search, but is every job worth applying for?

Are You Qualified?

You're reading through the qualifications and you see there are ten things on the list that they need for the right candidate. How many of those do you match? If it's less than half, skip it. Don't waste your time and the hiring manager's time. If they need a certain number of years of experience and you're a few short, again, it's a good idea to skip it. On a whim, I applied for a job once that was way out of my qualifications, but I thought, "How funny would it be if I did this?" So, on a dare, I sent off my resume. I was shocked when I went to my mailbox and there was a letter from this radio station. It was your basic form rejection letter, but I still have it and it's a funny story to tell.

Are You Talking Yourself Into It?

The ad looks really promising until you get to the bottom and it says that you have to work nights and weekends and you really don't want to, but it's a job and you haven't really come across anything else that's really promising. Maybe working nights and weekends won't be so bad. You'll have your days free to do housework or maybe join a gym. Do you feel like you need to talk yourself into applying for the job? Then it's not worth taking the time to apply. I had someone approach me once for a job and it was actually a second job on top of another radio job I already had. It was a good job and a place I wanted to work. I thought it was a good idea, but then I went to bed every night as I was waiting for their call trying to think of what I would say if they called me back and how I could blow the interview. Right away and in theory it would have been awesome, if it were my only job and I lived closer because I would have to drive to downtown Minneapolis every day and I wouldn't get home until after 8. Then I realized I was talking myself into it. I ultimately had to come up with a way to politely decline the offer because it turned out I didn't really want it.

Is It a Scam?

You have to enter in your name and email into those job search engines when you're looking for a job because when you enter in your qualifications and what you're looking for, they automatically search for those jobs for you and alert you when jobs in your wheelhouse come available. The bad thing is that there are spam bots out there that take your information and send you bogus jobs. Then you send your information to them and now scammers and spammers have your name, address and phone number. That's the down side of applying for jobs online. If you get an email for a job posting and it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Especially if it's an unsolicited email that doesn't explain how they got your information. If there's no company information or a phone number to call. If you're suspicious, copy and paste some of the text into Google. If it's a scam, you're going to find it. Happened to me. I wanted a bartender gig, so I was looking online and started getting these emails for jobs and if I wasn't sure, I would Google it. Turns out one of the emails I got was for a guy looking for naked waitresses. Sicko.

It's alright to cast a wide net. Just make sure you're not wasting your time applying for jobs you don't want and are never going to get.