Job Seekers, Don't Sing Your Praises! Hiring Managers Urge Modesty

Last summer, Lisa Harrell interviewed a candidate for a director job who offered a list of impressive accomplishments. But during the 60-minute meeting, the Ivy League candidate never paused long enough for the recruiter to ask just how he executed on them.

"In the end, he took a breath and said, 'After my first 90 days, what is my next step?'" recalls Ms. Harrell, vice president of human-capital development at UnitedHealth Group Inc. in Minnetonka, Minn. His bravado cost him the job, she says.

When it comes to self-promotion in the workplace, hiring managers say some people go too far and block their path to the next level. You might call them the corporate world's "American Idol" wannabes. Like many contestants on the reality TV show who extol the greatness of their singing abilities and then end up sent home, corporate idols sing praises about their abilities without delivering tangible evidence to back up the claims.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[munki]

HR manager does not know what Manager wants...
because many do not have hands on experience in doing the position...
All theories... that is caused... paper failure to meltdown...
Check those accountable CEOs... it will speak for itself...
good on resume... golf course, but did they really know the business that they represent?

[bikerdude]

A lot of hiring managers and hr folks are way, way too subjective. As a senior, senior citizen, it irks me to go on an interview and have someone younger than my children talking nonsense...instead of adressing the position and requirements. A lot has changed since I was "in demand", so my view has changed a bit, but when when I see what they are hiring, it makes sense that so many of these companies are short sighted flash-in-the-pan entities. Oh well...at least Bush and Co didn't get to steal my social security benes....

[Truby]

Without a doubt, interviewing is about selling yourself as the person the company needs not for who you are. The inherent contradiction is likely to seed failure more often then success. Hiring is an art form and a crap shoot at best. Modern hiring generally involves the use of predictive tests and interviewing formulas that force applicants to prepare by learning to repeat what will score the highest.

Modern HR is about taking as few chances as possible. I am sure that every one of the CEO's we read about lately did very well in these interviews. Trust is the key to good hires. Trust your instincts and trust the applicants responses, review their performance regularly and accept that with humans, perfection is impossible.

[ravencalling]

Hiring Managers who bypass any HR are likely to hire just like you and I would hire. We can easily be fooled by the person who simply gives the best vibes as long as their resume stacks up.
So I would say, it depends. A lot of managers have been burned by fast talking people who obviously are better at expounding their virtues then they are at working. Companies are filled with these types. The most productive worker bees and some of the most respected, and loyal, are those that are the most humble about their abilities. The others might be good salespeople, and will definitely work their way up to management based on their frat skills but they are probably not going to work very hard at the job given them. They are ambitious but don't want to work for their ambitions - thus the sales pitch. Managers who get stuck with these types end up coping with these problem children, having to figure out where to put them and they get passed around and soon earn their reputations.

[pab08]

I don't know what works best. I have been out of work since April. My favorite thing is when companies that you never hear from after interviewing with them. I can understand when you don't hear back after applying for a position. However after they take the time to interview you (even flying you somewhere and putting you up in a hotel), you owould think that common courtesy would require letting you know the status of their decision/process. I am even having a hard time getting reimbursed fro my interview expenses (out of town travel) even after I was given a blank expense report form form the company to "make sure there are no snags in getting reimbursed."
It may seem petty, but on one out of town interview, my expenses equalled 2 weeks of unemployment compensation. I have followed up with a couple of polite email and voice mail queries about the status of the position and expense report with no response. I am unsure as to how hard I should push to get my money back. After all it was their suggestion that I come up the day before, stay at the hotel that they recommended and rent a car. They arranged the airfare and promised to reimbursed the rest - and gave me their form to do so.
Crazy unprofessional behavior for a Fortune 100 company.

[Social Construct]

In my experience, it seems that the folks with the abilities to express pure B.S. and, at the same time, display their willingness to brown-nose are the ones most likely to be hired. If you ask people in positions of management and hiring whether they would hire the afore mentioned types, they will, nine times out of ten, tell you no. Yet they always seem to hire those exact types. Go figure.

[strangerinthenight]

This is my first job out of college, and have been with this company for 7 years, not counting the time I interned to complete my practicum required for graduation. Luckily I had a good GPA, so I was hired after the intership with no formal intervews, or second or third, except passing the drug test, criminal, scholastic, and credit history background. Things were going fine with my career, with 3 promotions to date. I chosed to stay although there had been other offers.

With these economic down turn, so far to date, 100 of my co-workers and colleague have been given pink slips. I've made some networkings, and may have some opportunity with other companies, if lay offs continue, 'am hopeful to get a job with another company.



I have a mortgage, a car note and a student loan that is almost paid. For the rag tag employees that remained, we are all edgy.

[cylindar]

Why would anyone want to work for someone else to begin with and be a slave with no will of their own for the rest of their lives anyways. Working for someone else is a sign of weakness in that you do not have the guts to go out and make it on your own. Every employer knows this and so you go to any job interview viewed as a weaker person who can't do anything for themselves. Thus employers are really more interested in team players more than they are creativity etc.. The owners or CEO's of a business see themselves as the creative fount and you are only there to follow their orders. So the biggest and best asset any prospective employee could have is the ability to follow and implement. When you go to your next job interview remember, you are a nobody and convey that to your interviewer. They will see that you are ready and willing for plantation work and will readily take you on over those who extoll their virtues. Be a nobody and become a somebody the stealthy way. After you work this magic continue with the same theme until you have accumulated enough money to give the finger to your boss and free yourself by starting your own business. . You never want to let on that you are too smart as then they will expect you to screw them. It is all a game. Monopoly anyone?

[LeeCalif]

Signed,
The guy that wants to beat you to the line.

[ObjectiveRealist]

It depends who's interviewing you. Some only respect you based on how demonstratively you project confidence, George Walker Bush-type employers. If you're really sure you can work for somebody like that, sing your own praises until you're hoarse.

Other hiring managers know you have imperfections, and are more interested in your awareness of them and ability to work through them than in your ability to deny them. Even if some hiring managers still respond better to bragging, it's probably safe to say that nobody can walk into a job interview demanding to be in charge of a new department called homeland security.

[cylindar]

On the contrary, I would rather walk into an interviewers office and let them know that I would piss on them of they got out of hand. I have gotten more jobs this way than you can imagine. Most interviewers do not know their you know what from a hole in the ground. Basically job interviews have nothing to do with what you have done or your skills or anything like that. They all have to do with personality, power and presence.

[PoliticalRockChick]

These hiring managers don't know what the hell they want. You can explain to these hiring managers what you accomplished and what you can bring to the position, at the end of the day they want someone that can be their b*tch, a doormat, someone who will never question or speak out when something goes down.

Majority of the jobs average workers are applying for doesn't take someone who's an Einstein. Case in point: Watch Office Space or The Office.

[KillTheMessenger]

If you are an engineer, the right way to be hired is to put the physical hardware you built in your past on the table. People are a lot more impressed by what you have actually done than by anything else. It's also a lot more honest than any other way of self-advertising. Worked for me EVERY time.

[Chaimirija]

I have to a agree

hoops hoops hoops

[mcliberty]

These people don't know what they want. You are supposed to make yourself stand out but you have to be modest.