The old year is gone and a new one begins. Here’s wishing you a safe and prosperous 2011.
Don’t Tell on Yourself in Your Job Search
Derek Hinton - dotjobhistory.com
The little old lady called the police to report her young male neighbor for indecent exposure. The police arrived at her house to investigate. Inside the house, the lady took the police to the window next to the neighbor. “He prances around in there nude quite frequently on his way to the bathroom to take a shower and often even comes out to dry off,” she said. The policeman looked out the window at the neighbor’s high, small window, took off his hat and scratched his head. “Ma’am, uh, I can’t really see a whole lot.” The lady glared at the officer. “WELL,” she sniffed, “If you go out to the garage and get my step ladder and use my binoculars while standing on your tippy-toes, you sure as the devil can!”
Don’t you hate to tell on yourself? I spoke with a driver-member this morning that had been looking for a job and was not getting much contact from potential employers after submitting applications. After reviewing the information we obtained together, it became clear why: he was telling on himself. He was listing on employment applications that he had been terminated by one employer and was reporting a moving violation from around three years ago.
The former employer was reporting that the driver quit (was not terminated), was eligible for rehire and had satisfactory job performance while employed. While reviewing the driver’s MVR, we learned the moving violation had dropped off his record three weeks ago due to age. And so the driver was short circuiting his chances before many employers even began screening him (he had other violations on the MVR, but quantity counts).
Typically, the situation is reversed: companies discover information when checking references, obtaining the driving record or the criminal record. And while this is sometimes intentional, sometimes it’s not. When you have worked multiple jobs over the past ten years and a potential employer will carefully verify experience with all the companies, it’s fairly easy to make mistakes—even innocent mistakes that can delay your employment or get you rejected. For example, dates of service are a common pitfall. If you innocently get the dates of employment off by even a month or two, it may leave a gap and the potential employer may wonder if you are not listing a past employer because you do not want the potential employer to talk to them. Accidents/Incidents and crashes are another category of information that trips up drivers. Potential motor carriers can obtain this information from three different sources: past employers, MVRs and, the new kid on the block, CSA 2010 Pre-Employment Screening Reports (PSP Reports). (For more information on PSP reports, see articles in the “What’s New” section of www.DOTJobHistory.com). Drivers will frequently not list an “accident” on an employment application because the “accident” did not result in a citation or even involve the police. Other times, a driver will list an accident on an employment application because police were involved but the particular state in which it happened did not record the accident because the driver was not at fault and the previous employer didn’t classify it as an accident either.
The moral of the story of course is to know what your records will show. Your driving career is too important to fiddle around with. You don’t want to get rejected for the job you want and not be able to re-apply for 6 months because you made a dumb mistake. On the other hand, you don’t want to tell on yourself for something that’s not there.
Based on the aggregation of billions of search queries people typed into Google this year, Zeitgeist captures the spirit of 2010.
Zeitgeist 2010
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Sometimes it’s nice to be naughty, but is it ever naughty to be nice? It looks like a pretty even split on the TruckDriver.com Naughty or Nice Survey.
Were you naughty or nice this year?
Nice - 53%
Naughty - 47%
Since it’s the New Year, why not take the TruckDriver.com Old Year’s Resolution Survey and let us know how you did.
Until next time, keep on truckin' and please drive safely.
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