How Not to Be a "Spooky" Job Seeker

As a nod to our almost-Halloween posting date this month, the Career Collective (a community of blogging career coaches, resume writers and other career experts) is writing about how to avoid "scary" career mistakes and how to make sure your career "costume" fits you. Follow us on Twitter at #careercollective, and be sure to check out the links below to all of the other posts on this topic!

Seems like Halloween is a polarizing holiday - you either love it or hate it.

Personally I love it, even though these days I'm not focused on creating a fabulous costume for me but on helping my kids with theirs. I love the haunted houses in our neighborhood, the whole trick-or-treating ritual with my kids, the creepy decorations, seeing people dressed up in creative or gruesome ways, and stealing Kit Kat bars from my kids' enormous candy haul.

One thing we might all agree on regarding Halloween is that it's not a time to be a spooky job seeker. Fortunately or unfortunately, you need to stay professional and authentic. No wearing masks, no creeping hiring managers out, no unbridled greed (thinking here again of my kids and that enormous candy haul).

Of course you aren't showing up to interviews actually in costume and with a handful of rubber spiders. But there are many ways to be a spooky job seeker.

Here's how not to be one:

• Use informational interviews to get information, not to ask for a job.

• Offer your support, expertise, and resources to people before asking them for favors.

• Ensure every piece of information on your resume is true and be familiar with its details. Don't exaggerate about your accomplishments, forget which resume you sent or draw a blank about the your key achievements.

• Be honest about how well you know a mutual contact of a hiring manager, rather than inflate your relationship in order to gain an interview.

• Be honest about what you have experience with and what you don't, instead of automatically assuring your interviewer that you can do "whatever" they ask for.

• Ask thoughtful, open ended questions during an interview that focus on what the organization needs and wants rather than what you need and want.

• Follow up after an interview with an eye for respecting the hiring team's time rather than calling every day for two weeks.

• If you have another job offer on the table, discuss this with an intention of finding ways everyone can win, rather than playing games to get you the highest salary.

This Halloween you should enjoy being as scary, spooky or creepy as you want. But on Monday when you're back to your job search, remember to take off the mask and go back to being the most polished and professional "you" that you can be.

Keep a few Kit Kats with you, for luck!

Check out all of this month's posts by the Career Collective:

• Where Are the Wild Things, Anyway?, @WorkWithIllness
• Is Your Job Search Making You Feel Like a Smashed Pumpkin?, @DebraWheatman
• Hiding in Plain Sight, @WalterAkana
• Don't make these frightful resume mistakes, @LaurieBerenson
• A Tombstone Resume:Eulogizing Your Experience, @GayleHoward
• The Top Ten Scary Things Job Seekers Do, @barbarasafani
• Oh, Job Search Isn't Like Trick or Treating?, @careersherpa
• A Most Unfortunate Resume Mistake No One Will Tell You, @chandlee
• Oh no. Not the phone!, @DawnBugni
• Halloween Caution: Job Seeker Horror, @resumeservice
• Boo! Are you scaring away opportunities or the competition? @MartinBuckland @EliteResumes
• Your Career Brand: A Scary Trick or an Appealing Treat?, @KCCareerCoach
• How to avoid mistakes on your resume, @Keppie_Careers
• Sc-sc-scary Resume Mistakes, @erinkennedycprw
• A Flawed Resume is a Scary Prospect, @KatCareerGal
• Job Search Angst: Like Clouds Mounting Before a Storm, @ValueIntoWords
• Does Your Career Costume Fit You?, @expatcoachmegan

photo by YAXZONE