Let’s face it, after spending hours and hours trawling through countless CVs, you’re eventually going to find aspects of candidate’s applications a little bit annoying – at the end of the day you’re only human. Well after being in the recruitment industry for many years, I thought I’d share my top 10 list of annoying job application blunders.

          1) I am applying for this position because I believe I am the ‘best candidate’ for the job

“Wow, the best candidate for the job”! “That was easier and quicker than I thought”. “I don’t even need to read any further because that must be true”… Ah bless them, but this statement does niggle me a bit the wrong way.

Let’s look at this from an outside perspective; the applicant doesn’t know who else is applying for the job and it’s a bit far fetched to believe there is no one more suited for the job than you. This kind of statement does put me off a little and it should really be left out of a job application – sometimes however, it can just be an innocent mistake and should be treated as an annoyance rather than rejection criteria.

However, a good candidate will tell you why they are a great fit for the job and then back it up with evidence as to why they can perform the jobs duties well.

          2) I can be too much of a perfectionist

“Wow that’s not even a bad trait, you must be great”. Statements like this are a bit of a ‘my greatest weakness is that I have no weaknesses’ cop out.

The unfortunate thing is there are a lot of great candidates that use statements similar to the one above, usually they are recent grads or students that haven’t become familiar with the world of employment.

A comment like this can be forgiven, but I would rather go for an applicant that can give a fair analysis of their strengths and weaknesses, with a game plan on how they plan to improve.

          3) Slang or txt language

U shld hyre me 4 da job bcoz I da best candid8…… Wait, what did I just read? Was that even English? Although txt and slang language has grown in recent years and is even starting to become a cultural identifier for the younger generations, the world of business is still a professional environment – correct grammar and spelling is a must.

I do however understand that certain jobs and companies will require greater and/or lesser degrees of professional communication, however I personally would always go for a candidate who puts effort and pride into their job application, and let’s face it those people are generally the good ones.

          4) The generic cover letter

For me, having a generic cover letter is an instant turnoff. If a candidate doesn’t value the job opportunity or have enough time to write up a new cover letter for each job application, then they are probably not worth the time.

It simply comes down to the fact that this future employee will be an important part of your company going forward, you don’t want someone who just needs a job; you want someone who wants YOUR job.

Some simple indications of a generic cover letter are no company or job title listed, no date (or the wrong date), standard skills with no mention of the job duties, and having it addressed to dear ‘hiring manager’ when a name has been provided in the ad.

          5) None or lack of contact details

Need we go any further? We’ve all been in the candidate’s position before, and I can’t be the only one who double and triple checked that my phone number and email address were written correctly and up-to-date.

If someone doesn’t list or hasn’t updated their contact details, it indicates a lack of attention to detail or that they don’t keep a professional up-to-date CV. For me, no contact details usually means no job!

          6) Getting waaay too personal

Although it is nice and in some cases important to hear about an applicant’s personal interests and hobbies, sometimes it can be taken too far. It’s not important to know about what an applicant enjoys doing on a weekend with their significant other, what political stance they have, or that they secretly love rap and praise Eminem.

There are however important interests and hobbies to look out for in an application. Team sports can indicate a good ability to work in a group and respect a teams culture, musical instruments can indicate a certain level of diligence, and even your standard social activities can display a level of inter-person communication.

          7) Sending in multiple applications (I Saw It the First Time!!)

This one almost didn’t make it on the list because it can be frustrating from both sides. A lot of the time the reason candidates resubmit CVs is because they haven’t had adequate communication from the employer and begin to think their application was lost or didn’t go through correctly.

However when a candidate applies again the day after or even in some respects a week after, it can begin to get a tad annoying. It gives out a sense of desperation and also impatience; signs that the candidate might not be ideal. Do not however be put off by candidates that contact you after a reasonable amount of time, following no or little prior communication.

A lot of the time they will just be enthusiastic candidates who are very interested in the available opportunity. As I said, this one almost didn’t make it on the list as it is just as dependent on the employer having a good recruitment process.

If you communicate regularly with candidates and they still bombard you with applications and phone calls than it might be time to say ‘no thanks mate’ – if they’re already starting to frustrate during the recruitment process, the relationship probably isn’t going to work well in the long run.

          8) Not listing work/education dates

I can’t be the only one who gets a little bit frustrated by this, it’s either an innocent mistake or they are trying to hide something, like being a regular job hopper, unreliable worker, having extended employment gaps, or having been out of work for a long duration of time.

Sometimes assessing the importance of this comes down to intuition. Does the rest of their application indicate any of the above or are they just a good worker who doesn’t quite know the general structure of a CV. If you choose to progress with an applicant who has made this CV blunder, make sure you bring it up and clarify things during the interview.

          9) Generic skills they can bring to the job

Great attention to detail, reliable, trust worthy, good communication skills, solid work ethic….yawn! Let’s face it these aren’t skills, most of the time they are general requirements for any job.

Either they are using a standardised cover letter found on Google and haven’t bothered to actually list unique skills they have, they don’t understand the skills required for the job, or they don’t have the necessary skill set.

Once again the importance of this varies from job to job. If it’s a factory or labouring job, well, they are kind of the most important skills for that job work.

However if it is a professional position that requires some degree of background knowledge, they need to be able to communicate their unique skill set and how it can be applied to the duties of that position.

          10)  If you don’t hire me for this position, it will be a big mistake

“I’m sorry, was that a threat?” One thing that can get frustrating is when an applicant thinks they’re worth their weight in gold, rather than understanding that there are plenty of talented job seekers and they should value any opportunity with equal measure.

If someone makes a similar comment to this, I generally wouldn’t bother with them; either they aren’t a good fit for the job and are trying to overcompensate with bucket loads of confidence, they are qualified and talented but have a god complex, or they are a pretty good candidate and unfortunately made a silly comment.

Top candidates won’t say things like this, they know their skills, talent, and background will speak for itself.

This article was kindly supplied by Haystack Jobs.