The way each advert is
designed should tell you a lot about an organization; the image it wants to
project and the details it may not want to expose to the general public. Thus
there are limits to the details of a position advertised may reveal. For
example it may be ambitious to want to be told how a vacancy arose when you
have been short-listed for interviews or worse, when you haven’t even expressed
interest in the position.
Some candidates take
advantage of their enquiries to indirectly bond with recruiters. They use the
opportunity to demonstrate enthusiasm for the position and give hints about
their knowledge or even the peculiarity of their background. An enquiry of this
kind of may portray you as playing unfairly against other candidates who may
not have the opportunity to make such calls. In other words, it is as good as
canvassing. You risk disqualification.
Some enquiries could
suggest you are neither brilliant nor forward thinking.
The enquiries you raise for
clarifications of an advertised position should at a bare minimum demonstrate
you intelligence. Most of the time the questions raised by job seekers expose
their negative attributes and easily influence their employability even before
being short-listed.
Negative impressions
include attention seeking, exaggerated anxiety or impulse reactivity. You may
project yourself as someone who talks without prior thought or who would prefer
asking others for information that can easily be obtained from other sources.
You come out as a lazy individual.
Your ability to be a self
starter and to work independently and not ask questions at every stage would be
in question. If you must ask questions, ensure they are those that add value,
genuinely fill gaps in your knowledge of the position and may not be seen to
give you undue advantages. Such queries should be those that you may not easily
obtain through alternative means such as the internet and are relevant to the
position of your interest.
Source: The Daily Nation of
May 30, 2011
