This one is based on real-experience interviewing hundreds of people over the course of this year and thousands of people over the past 10 years as a start-up founder. As far as building a company goes, building things that serve and delight your customers is top priority.
Next, is who you work with. Hiring great people is often the difference between a good company and a great one.
At a start-up, every single person has to be the right fit. You don’t want the yeah they do the job fit or they’re better than the others we’ve spoken to fit. Or worse: the they’re available right now fit. Each person has to be vetted by fewer decision makers at a start-up but the risk of hiring the wrong person is higher because in a small team, everyone works together.
We recently transformed the 8Flamez website into a candidate portal (Thanks to Team Tailor). We spend 1-2 hours a day reviewing every single candidate who applies for a role and only interview the ones who fit our criteria.
In the past few months, I’ve seen a mix of some of the worst job applications I’ve ever read with <1% being moved to interview stage. Out of the 7,000 candidates who’ve applied for a job at 8Flamez in the past 3 months, I’ve summarised some feedback that I hope will help you with your job applications (to anywhere). I’ve attached some real examples of what failure looks like but kept the candidate name anonymous of course.
10 reasons we immediately disqualify candidates:
1. The candidate doesn’t meet the basic criteria of the job post. If the role asks for candidates who are fluent in Arabic and English but you apply anyway, you’re being immediately rejected. If the job role is for a specialist skill-set with experience in the field and you have none, it’s an immediate no.
2. The candidate copy-pastes their application everywhere. Yes, we can tell. In some cases, candidates will leave fields like [Insert Company Name] in their application or send a cover letter that has no relevancy to the job being posted.
3. The candidate tells you they’re the best fit or the ‘perfect choice’. You aren’t deciding who the best fit for this job is. You’re applying to a company you know very little about or have no relation with any of the people there. If your application says I’m the perfect candidate, you lack humility and come off as arrogant and ignorant of those competing for the role. Or even worse, you say you have no idea why you applied but the job looked interesting.
4. The candidate uses Chat-GPT. The use of AI technology, like all tools, is effective when it’s used the right way. If you’re using Chat-GPT to write your job applications, cover letters or video interviews, it tells the hiring team that you are fearful of speaking in your own voice and are dismissive of the place you’re applying to work at.
5. The candidate tries to use complex words. This is one I see a lot. We’re not looking to hire candidates able to communicate like a President, a Doctor diagnosing an illness or a modern day Shakespeare. Be genuine in how you communicate. Apply in your own voice. Show us who you are and how you speak. We’re not hiring people based off their ability to use the right grammar or how many long words they use. Write using simple words and speak simply and clearly.
6. The candidate knows nothing about the company. Nearly 50% of the applications we’ve seen fit into this category. If you’re applying to work somewhere, do some home work. Scope out the company’s team and founders, stalk them online and get an understanding of who they are and what they do. If your application suggests you just clicked the apply button because you saw a job on a job board, you’re expecting to get lucky. If you believe you’re a good fit, put in the work and don’t rely on luck.
7. The candidate refuses to fill out the application. Every so often, I’ll see an application where a candidate will say they don’t want to fill out all the questions in the application. Or most recently, we received an application from someone saying ‘If you want me to upload a video interview for free, I want you to upload a video about yourself for free’. I think this is the first person I’ve actually blocked completely from ever applying to work with us and if I’m asked about them from a fellow entrepreneur, I’ll recommend they avoid them at all costs. If the application asks for you to fill out fields, do it. No founder wants to hire entitled brats.
8. The candidate messages founder or hiring manager privately. Whilst you think that messaging the hiring manager or company founder is giving you a leg up, it implies that you believe you’re too good to apply through the proper channels. You don’t earn wasta by sending a founder your job application. We don’t know you. Moreover, if your message to a hiring founder is Hi, I just wanted to introduce myself. Could we have an interview? then you’re likely to hurt your chances of being shortlisted. This type of message implies you were too lazy to tailor a message to the founder/hiring manager and tells them that you don’t value their time. Founders are fiercely focused on building their company and if they’re doing well, get hundreds of messages. Don’t disrespect their time by making a personal introduction with nothing substantial or relevant.
9. The candidate applies to multiple jobs posted by the same company. At least 25% of candidates do this. Applying for a job is not a lottery. You don’t get a better chance at being hired because you applied for 4 jobs. This just tells a founder you’re lazy and don’t add substantial value to one area of expertise. Nothing says I just want a job like someone who applies for multiple jobs in totally different disciplines. If you do this, write a very tailored cover letter for each of the applications describing why you would be a good fit for each different role.
10. The candidate lies about their salary expectations. If the job asks you to propose a salary range, be honest with your expectations. We get hundreds or thousands of applications for the same job so we know the average salary range of the job you’re applying for. If you’re an obvious outlier, you’re being intentionally dishonest and assuming we’re ignorant of the market. By all means, negotiate your salary and package if you’re offered the job. Once you’re offered the job, you have leverage to ask for more than market. Before you’re offered the job, you have no leverage in the eyes of the hiring founder/manager.
If you avoid the 10 steps above, you’ll fall into the top 1% of candidates to be shortlisted.
If this has been helpful, I’ll do a follow-up post on what gets candidates through to final selection 🙂