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6 reasons you may be getting disqualified from jobs when applying
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The majority of applicants to a small business get disqualified immediately. There are lots of reasons to disqualify an applicant before even looking at their resume. Make sure you are not making any of these six critical mistakes when applying. - photo by Matt Roberge
Are you getting disqualified from jobs when applying but you dont know why? Im here to try to help you understand why you may not be getting your dream job, or even getting the opportunity to interview.

There are certain things that cause me to immediately disqualify an applicant from the hiring process. Some are disqualified during the application process, while others get eliminated during the interview phase.

Below are six reasons you may be getting disqualified from a job; if you are violating any of these, fix them immediately.

No LinkedIn profile or a weak profile

It doesnt matter whether you like social media or not; it is actually important in the business world. Of particular importance to small businesses is the social platform LinkedIn.

If you dont have a LinkedIn profile, you are disqualified. If you dont have a picture on your profile, you are eliminated.

You need to think of LinkedIn as your online resume. I am much more interested in an applicant's LinkedIn profile than a resume.

I then look at how complete their profile is. Do they share relevant information? How many connections do they have? Do they have good recommendations? Is their work history up to date?

If you dont have a LinkedIn profile, get signed up and make sure to add a picture and then optimize your LinkedIn profile.

Old-school and unprofessional email addresses

Im not ashamed to admit that I disqualify candidates that have unprofessional email providers or email addresses. So what are disqualifying email providers? For me that is Hotmail and AOL. Hotmail and AOL are known to have a lot of scammers/bots associated with the messages. Stick to an e-mail provider that has some great security measures like Gmail or Outlook.

Another thing I look at is the email address itself. If your email address is sexyguy123@hotmail.com you are getting deleted. This e-mail is unprofessional and completely inappropriate. As an owner, my thoughts are whether or not youre going to be a liability. Would you be making co-workers uncomfortable, would there be problems with sexual harassment? Theres really no way to know, because weve never met before and the resume in front of me, along with the e-mail address is my first impression of your personality.

You cant go wrong with a professional Gmail address. There are plenty of good e-mail addresses out there that you can associate your name with. If youre going to have a name like John Smith it can be fun. Mix up numbers like John2.Smith@gmail.com. Its still simple enough to understand its you, and doesnt raise a flag as to your integrity.

A generic cover letter

In all of our job advertisements I specifically state:

Please do not send us a generic cover letter; chances are we wont read your resume.

This doesnt mean that I wont look at your resume. Do I state this because I am arrogant? No, I state this because generic cover letters are boring. They also show that you dont care enough about this job to take five minutes out of your day to do some research on the company and job you are applying for and tailor your cover to them.

Give me a good example of how your experience can help our company, what you bring to the job and how its applicable to our business, or even what you understand about our company.

People that write good cover letters tailored to the specific job and company increase their chances of getting to the interview phase.

No research done on the business before the interview

Here is a simple, yet super effective interview question we ask:

So tell us what you know about us and our business?

If you havent done any research on us we know instantly; we can see it based on your body language after we ask this question.

So where should you be doing research on these businesses and people that are interviewing you? You should Google the interviewees and the business. You should look on LinkedIn at personal profiles and the business page. Lastly, you should look on the companys Web page itself. Peruse the Web page in detail and especially the about us page. You should learn a great deal about the business, what it does and what is important to the business.

See what good information you can dig up on the company and people that are interviewing you. Any little detailed tid-bit you can work in will help.

Looking through the potential co-workers profiles, looking through the job description, understanding the company and its culture can all be great clues as to whether youd even enjoy working for the company. If youre not going to fit in, its not worth either of our time to sit through interviews, fill out paperwork or do training.

When we ask a candidate what they know about our business and they answer with: Well I know you run an outsourced bookkeeping services company, they dont get the job.

Not challenging themselves

I like candidates with big aspirations who like to be challenged. So when you get asked the old question (because you know its coming): Where do you see yourself in five years?

Go big! Also, tell the truth. If you are applying for a bookkeeper position with us and you tell us that in five years you want to be a bookkeeper, its going to be a no go from us.

I like dreamers. I like people who challenge themselves. I like people with a vision.

Inability to have a conversation

All this social media stuff out there has made us, well, kind of unsocial. If you cant carry on a normal conversation, most businesses wont hire you.

But why not? If you arent comfortable socializing

  1. You wont fit in with your co-workers.
  2. You cant talk to clients.
Business is about sales. We sell the company image through ourselves to potential clients every day. We also have to retain our current customers. It only takes one employee to tarnish the reputation of a company, whereas it will take many to build it back up.

You spend a heck of a lot of time with your co-workers, so they are going to want someone who is easy to talk to.

That doesnt mean you have to be a very talkative or even social person. All Im saying is that if you cant have a regular conversation without it being awkward, I think that may be a disqualifying event.

If you have a hard time carrying on a good conversation, go to a bunch of business networking events. That is a great way to learn how to talk to other business people.

I would love to hear your thoughts. What other reasons cause you to disqualify applicants that they may not be thinking about?
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How to avoid 'sharenting' and other paparazzi parenting habits
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A recent study revealed parents often spend up to two hours staging a single photo of his or her child to post online. - photo by Amy Iverson
Before having kids, some people just dont appreciate their friends baby posts. But after having a child of their own, three fourths of new parents jump right on the parental social media bandwagon. If you have become a member of this group, there are some rules to follow for posting responsibly.

Much of a parents worry is how to teach their children to use social media responsibly. We talk with our kids about privacy, oversharing, and setting restrictions on their devices to keep them safe. But parents themselves need to look in the digital mirror once in a while. Before having children, it doesnt take as much effort to think about what to post online. Its up to us to decide what we share about our own lives. But once you become a parent, there are many questions to think about regarding what is appropriate to post about your kids on social media.

In a recent survey, kids clothing subscription company Mac and Mia surveyed 2000 new parents to find out how they are documenting their kids lives on social media, and what concerns they may have.

First of all, people without children seem to feel a bit differently about the onslaught of baby pictures online than those who are parents. 18 percent of people say before they had kids, they were annoyed by their friends baby posts. But after having children of their own, 73 percent admit they post progress pictures of their little ones every single month.

Not only are new parents letting the world know each time their baby is a month older, but they are posting about their kids every few days or so. Men and women report they post 6-7 times per month about their baby.

And while 70 percent of new parents say the benefit of using social media is how easy it is to help family and friends feel involved, there are some downsides. Here are a few tips to avoid the pitfall of becoming paparazzi parents.

Dont miss the moment

In the Mac and Mia survey, some parents admitted to spending up to two hours to get the perfect shot of their baby. That seems a little extreme. New and old parents alike should be careful about spending so much time taking pictures and videos that they dont enjoy the moment. Years ago, I decided to never live an experience through my phone. A study by Linda Henkel, a psychology professor at Fairfield University in Connecticut, found that when people took pictures of objects in an art museum, they didnt remember the objects as well as if they simply observed them.

This photo-taking impairment effect can happen to parents as well. If we are so consumed by getting the perfect photo, we can miss out on the moment all together, and our memory of it will suffer.

Dont forget about privacy

60 percent of couples say they have discussed rules and boundaries for posting their babys photos, according to the Mac and Mia survey. Even so, men are 34 percent more likely to publish baby posts on public accounts. If parents are concerned about their childrens privacy, keeping photos off of public accounts is a given.

In the Washington Post, Stacey Steinberg, a legal skills professor at the University of Florida, and Bahareh Keith, a Portland pediatrician, wrote that sharing too much information about kids online puts them at risk. They write that all that sharenting can make it easier for data thieves to target out kids for identity theft. Check that your privacy settings are where they should be and never share identifying information like full names and birth dates.

Dont be paparazzi parents

36 percent of parents say they take issue when their childs photo is posted online by someone else. Responsible social media users will always ask permission before posting a photo of another child. But parents should also think about whether their own children will take issue with their own posted photos a few years down the road.

When parents are constantly snapping pictures and throwing them on social media, it can be easy to forget to pause and make sure the post is appropriate. I always use the billboard example with my kids. I ask them to picture whatever they are posting going up on a billboard in our neighborhood. If they are okay with that, then their post is probably fine. Parents should ask themselves this same question when posting about their children. But they should also ask themselves if their child would be OK with this post on a billboard in 15 years. If it would cause embarrassment or humiliation, it might be best to keep it private.

Once children reach an appropriate age, parents should include them in the process of deciding what pictures are OK to post. Researchers at the University of Michigan surveyed 10- to 17-year-olds and found children believe their parents should ask permission more than parents think they should. The kids in the survey said sharing happy family moments, or accomplishments in sports, school and hobbies is fine. But when the post is negative (like when a child is disciplined) or embarrassing (think naked baby pictures or messy hair), kids say to keep it off social media.
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