It never hurts to apply for a job, even if you later decide it’s not for you. But at the same time, you don’t want to waste a potential employer’s time. If they respond to you, and you’ve already decided it wouldn’t be a good fit, it’ll leave a bad impression with the employer. Sure, you may not think this matters, but you never know when a different position will open within the same company—one that you may want. So I definitely would advise not to bother applying unless you’re serious about setting up an interview.
So how do you figure out if an employment listing is one worth responding to? Well, first you want to stay away from the misleading job postings that end up being sales and/or marketing jobs. That is, unless you’re actually looking for that particular position.
I remember many years ago I went on a job interview in which I was told they were looking for someone to head the company’s marketing campaigns. I was so excited…until I did some research and found out what the company really did. Apparently, they hired young people to walk door-to-door and hand out flyers. Now, I don’t know about you, but that did not sound the least bit appealing to me. So I called them back and let them know I was on to their scam and I wasn’t interested.
Looking back, I could have avoided that whole situation if I had paid more attention to their employment listing. First, it just sounded too good to be true. I had no experience, and they were talking about hiring me as a manager! Second, this same company had the same position posted over and over again all over the job site, listed under different categories. Next, when I went to the company’s actual website, it had very little information about the company’s actual purpose. There was no mission statement and no list of clients.
This brings me to my next point. Before you decide to respond to an employment listing, please research the company. Don’t just go to their website, but also type their business name into a search engine.
If the company has a bad reputation, you’ll find out right away by searching them online. Even if it’s a legitimate company with a legitimate job opening, you may just find out it’s not for you.