Do yourself a favor, don't do any of these!

Here's a couple of things which stood out over the last few weeks while I was wondering what should be the topic of my next blog post.
These are things you should avoid as much as possible when you are in the process of making your next career move :

1. Turning up late for your interview. Or worse, not turning up at all. And then coming up with the most inane excuses.
If you are running late because of some unavoidable reason then it's best to call and let the coordinator or the interviewer know that you are running late. Even if it creates a bad impression, it's far better than the impression you would create by not informing at all.
Similarly if you are not able to turn up, make it a point to call as far ahead as you can and request for a rescheduling of the interview. Most people understand, and if they are keen on you as a candidate they will accommodate your request.

2. Chasing aggressively after the interview. It is important to follow up after an interview to understand where you stand and what happens next.
But at the same time it is important to know where to draw a line and where not to go overboard. Following up too aggressively gives the hiring team a wrong impression and makes them wonder if you are 'over eager', which is never a good thing!

3. Moving too soon. No matter how extenuating the circumstances, moving jobs within 6-12 months of your joining reflects poorly on you. Especially if your reason is that the position or scope was far lesser than what you had imagined it would be, or that the culture of the place did not meet your expectations.
At senior levels you are supposed to have a much better idea of the company, its culture, the organisation structure, peers, etc before making the move. If you discover these issues soon after moving and then decide within a year to move again it gives people the impression that you don't think through your decision and make hasty choices.

4. Sometimes I receive mails where people not only share their profiles but also their current compensation package as well as their expectations from the next job. That's a clear no-no! It might seem fairly obvious to most of us, but I'm always surprised by the number of people who still do this.

5. And there are those mail bloopers. Where someone sends me a mail telling me how gifted he/she is and the big difference he/she could make to any organisation he/she joins. And then I notice that the mail is cc'ed to more than a dozen other people from various search firms or placement companies!
Well, no prizes for guessing what I would have done with that mail!