Modern Technology May Not be so Great When Job Hunting

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Modern Technology May Not be so Great When Job Hunting

October 21, 2009

My husband and I always laugh about how fast our daughters can text on their cell phones. They think we “old timers” are funny because we prefer communicating the old fashioned way…by speaking to others live versus sending text messages or emails. But modern technology might not be such a great idea when looking for a job.

According to an article by Sarah E. Needleman of The Wall Street Journal on how “Young Job Candidates Find Too-Casual Tone of Textspeak Turns Off Hiring Managers,” while employers are now trying to use all the different forms of technology to recruit employees, such as the Web, mobile technology, even by posting ads on Facebook and MySpace, recruiters, on the other hand, don’t like the use of this technology during the hiring process because of its informal nature. They prefer much more formal communication.

Ms. Needleman gave an example of someone trying to hire for a position and a candidate sending an email thank you note after the interview “laced with words like ‘hiya’ and ‘thanx,’ along with three exclamation points and a smiley-face emoticon.” The hiring manager was not amused. Guess who probably didn’t get the job? The key problem with this type of casual communication when job hunting is they make the job seeker seem immature and unprofessional.

In her article, Ms. Needleman interviewed Blane Ruschak, the director of university relations and recruiting for KPMG, LLP. His comments: “We don’t feel emoticons have a place in any formal communications, it’s not professional.” And, seeing this kind of informal communication from a job applicant “makes KPMG’s hiring managers wonder whether that sort of unprofessional communication will follow the applicant to the workplace.”

The lesson to be learned…treat all communication during the hiring process with the utmost of professionalism and use traditional, more formal methods/channels of communication. Avoid sending text messages and only use email if absolutely necessary. If you must send an email, avoid “text-slang” terminology and emoticons – communicate as if you are writing and sending a formal letter using actual paper. And when sending a thank you note, remember to send it the old fashioned way by handwriting it using a thank you note card and mailing it.

Good luck!

~ Lisa Quast

Source: Wall Street Journal article: http://www.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB121729233758791783.html