It’s a familiar experience: You applied for a job you thought you would be perfect for, and then you never heard anything back. The phenomenon of the “résumé black hole” seems even more common in today’s age of applicant-tracking systems. However, there are a few things you may not be aware of that could be hurting your chances at your dream job.
Ahead, 11 reasons you never got called in for an interview — some you can fix, and others, well, they just kind of suck.
Whether it’s a few typos or a wonkily formatted job description, a lack of professionalism in your cover letter and résumé can hurt your chances of an interview — even if you have relevant work experience — because it suggests the obvious: that you are sloppy.
“Generally speaking, we are wary of candidates whose résumés or LinkedIn pages are filled with errors and/or typos, regardless of experience,” says the CMO of a healthcare technology company. “Even if the job's primary responsibility does not involve the written word, typos may be portentous of other issues.”
Illustrated by Natalia Spotts.
Your email address is the first thing your prospective boss will see, and it can make or break your chances of landing the job. For example, if your email address is listed as TaterTotFreak@hotmail.com, the hiring manager may wonder why you haven’t chosen a more professional-sounding handle. Likewise, HR managers hate to see prospective employees emailing from their current work addresses.
Illustrated by Natalia Spotts.
Prospective employers pay attention to how you applied. Whether the company asked for a cover letter and you didn't include one, or you didn't fill out the application correctly, hiring managers are looking to see if you are thorough and follow instructions.
Illustrated by Natalia Spotts.
An out-of-state address could kill your chances if the hiring manager doesn't have the budget to relocate you — even if you’re willing to pay for moving expenses. Your locale could also hold you back if the hiring manager is in a rush. “It's not always fair, but in book publishing, we hire so quickly, [an out-of-state address] truly is a disadvantage,” explains a book editor at a major publishing house. If you’re applying from abroad, your chances are even worse: It’s rare that a company will have the ability to hire a foreign candidate for a job.
Illustrated by Natalia Spotts.
The most heartfelt enthusiasm can’t replace work experience. Find a way to get some — even if it means an unpaid internship. For example, an interior designer notes, “My work is very specialized, and I always hire candidates with a background in the field.” And no, the personal blog you write does not count as relevant work experience.
Illustrated by Natalia Spotts.
Job descriptions usually list desired qualifications, and if your experience is markedly different from what is specified, you shouldn’t be surprised not to hear from a hiring manager. Someone hiring for a mid-level position that requires at least three years post-graduate experience is unlikely to consider candidates who just finished their degrees or ones with a decade of experience.
That said, studies have found that women won’t apply for a job unless they feel they fulfill 100% of the job requirements. Men, on the other hand, go for it when they only fit 60%. You do want to make sure you’re qualified for the job, but you don’t have to tick every box.
Illustrated by Natalia Spotts.
You might think, “It doesn’t hurt to ask…” when it comes to compensation, but asking for an ambitious salary range could hurt your prospects. If your stated salary requirements are far above the hiring manager’s maximum budget, she may not want to waste either of your time. Use sites like Glassdoor or PayScale to research a reasonable salary for the position if you’re unsure of an appropriate range.
Illustrated by Natalia Spotts.
Your future employer is going to google you, and they’re not just looking up your LinkedIn profile. If your online presence is overtly political, religious, racist, or immature, an employer will think twice about hiring you. According to a 2016 survey by CareerBuilder, 60% of employers use social-networking sites to research job candidates, up from 52% in 2015, and 59% use search engines to research potential hires, as well.
It can also be detrimental if your online presence suggests your interests lie elsewhere (you're applying for a job working for a financial firm, yet one time you tweeted about how much you hate numbers). The majority of the hiring managers surveyed say they are “looking for information that supports the [candidate's] qualifications for the job.”
Illustrated by Natalia Spotts.
There are many reasons you might have gaps in your résumé: You were laid off, you suffered an illness, you traveled for a year, or you took time off to care for a relative or child. Instead of leaving a hiring manager to wonder about the holes, research suggests you might be better off offering an explanation in your cover letter. A recent study conducted by a research team at Vanderbilt University found that concealing personal information lowered female applicants’ hiring prospects. In the study, hiring managers overwhelmingly preferred candidates who provided information, regardless of content.
Illustrated by Natalia Spotts.
Even in our up-to-the-moment digital age, job postings may be out of date. You may have applied too late or the company may have gone with an internal candidate. However, applying to an already filled position might lead to other opportunities. For example, a New York-based content specialist applying for a position at an agency says that she was told the position she’d applied for had been filled, but she got an interview for another similar role.
Illustrated by Natalia Spotts.
Yes, this is illegal (and yes, it’s horrible), but research suggests it happens regularly. For example, in a study conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research, researchers responded to help-wanted ads in Chicago and Boston newspapers. The researchers sent résumés with either stereotypically African-American- or white-sounding names and then measured the number of callbacks each résumé received for interviews. The experiment found that applicants with white-sounding names needed to send 10 résumés to get one callback; those with African-American-sounding names needed to send 15.
Illustrated by Natalia Spotts.Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
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