Hot on the news of younger job candidates ghosting their new employers – otherwise known as ‘career catfishing’ – comes new research into what puts applicants off a job vacancy. The connections between the two are obvious.
Online CV companies are often the sources of quirky studies, so kudos to StandOut CV for these fresh, er, insights. Thanks to its survey of 1,092 UK and US adults we now know the biggest red flags (or “icks” as StandOut CV would have it) when it comes to job interviewers’ questions and job ads. Often it’s the candidate’s dress sense or ability to conjure a sensible answer that gets the attention – who can forget the “demure” job interview? – so it’s refreshing to put the boot on the other foot.
The biggest no-no for candidates is apparently jobs that offer only the minimum annual leave. In the UK this is standard at 28 days; so this result must surely be skewed by candidates in the US where paid leave is set by individual employers.
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So let’s move along to something more interesting.
Coming in at number 2 was candidates “being required or encouraged to like other employees’ social media content”. This was off-putting for 64.6% and considered “very icky”.
A lack of diversity on a company’s board and little mention of DEI on the “about us” page got the thumbs down from 62.7%.
The Personnel Today office really got on board with the next “ick factor”. This was a job advert or interviewer saying “we’re like a family”. Clearly, the class of 2025 doesn’t like to be patronised and can spot it a mile off. Of course, this does not apply to those candidates who are actually related to the prospective employer, in the manner of the Succession wannabes.
Job advert phrases and buzzwords that were considered deeply icky included “winner’s mindset”, which would see a third of applicants become instant catfishers. “Work hard play hard” distressed a further large cohort.
Interviewer body odour would be catastrophic for firms seeking skills, found the study, while group interviews and interviewers mispronouncing names also elicited hugely negative responses from respondents.
Whether job candidates would prefer not to have a job at all than be interviewed by someone a bit whiffy, or a person who used “icky” words, was open to conjecture.
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