“The worst they can say is no.”
“The worst they can say is no.” Gets a whole new meaning when it comes to a job application. Really, in this day and age, the statement should be amended to, “The worst they can do is send you an automated AI-written rejection email without any explanation as to why.”
While you never know unless you try, and put your best foot forward, and put your hat in the ring. But when each application takes hours, and there are only so many jobs available in your field, receiving nothing but a response that has had little to no thought put into it just feels devastating, especially when you seemingly had all of the qualifications on paper.
It can leave you wondering just what went wrong. You’re putting in all this work with no feedback, wondering if you’ve missed something obvious on your CV or cover letters. Everywhere you look, there’s another potential pitfall or another red flag that you’re potentially unintentionally signaling for some reason, but you can never know for certain until you land that job.
For this candidate, well, they might be doing everything right, but they missed out on at least one job, getting passed up for even getting an interview, simply because of the personal interest they listed: olive oil.
Whereas so many others list personal interests such as hiking, biking, reading, going to the gym, yoga, and music, this candidate saw the chance to share their love of olive oil with the world, hoping to strike up some conversation and im-”press” their knowledge on hiring managers.
An X (formerly Twitter) user claiming to be either a hiring manager or a recruiter for a bank shared an innocuous tweet with a personal anecdote about how important it is to be “normal” and “well adjusted” when applying for banking roles. This has sparked an ongoing conversation and debate over the last 24 hours about what “normal” is and whether you actually want to hire “the olive oil guy” for roles.
There are valid points on both sides, but I, for one, think that there is some truth to wanting to hire someone who is unique and authentic and able to be dedicated enough to something to become an expert in it. And, yes, even if that thing is olive oil.
Author: Kayitsi.com
