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Hadas Kotek » Blog »

Job application do's and don't's -- a hiring manager's take

Oct 1, 2025

Over the past few months, I’ve been hiring data scientists to join my Responsible AI Human Evaluation team. We’re on a bit of an expansion spree. My job posting just got re-upped and I made a new LinkedIn post advertising my role again, which means I am getting dozens and dozens of messages on linkedin, slack, text, my personal email, my work email, and by carrier pigeon.

Below is my list of “don’ts” based on my experience from last time my posting was republished. It’s advice post #17,944 on this topic from the last month alone, no doubt, and YMMV—but at least this is my take on it. Advice in no particular order.

LinkedIn and messaging

• don’t send a message that just says “hi”
• don’t send a message or reply to a job ad with a canned response like “I’m interested”¹
• don’t send a message saying “I’m interested, can you check if I am qualified?” No, I do not have that kind of time, that’s your job
• don’t send a message with questions like “I’m interested, could you tell me more about the position”; that’s too broad. The ad tells you a lot already, what specifically do you want to know?
• don’t send a message that asks a question that’s clearly answered in the ad already
• don’t send a message requesting a meeting so you can tell me more about yourself or learn about the position²
• I know you read the advice of repeating words from the ad in your application, and I understand that makes sense in the context of automated tooling. It borders on creepy when you are writing a supposedly personalized message. It doesn’t have the desired effect
• ideally, don’t misspell my name (this is not immediately disqualifying, but I’ll notice)
• if someone includes their title (Dr, PhD, etc) in their profile name, maybe don’t call them Mrs³
• if you don’t know someone’s gender or pronouns, it is extremely easy to not make assumptions. English doesn’t force you to mark gender pretty much anywhere
• don’t send me three “reminders” three days in a row if I have not responded to your message

The tl;dr: respect my time. If you don’t actually need me to DM with you, and we both know it, it’s not going to make me more inclined to move forward with your application.

Applications and documents

• for the love of $DEITY, please include your name in your resume file name. You would not believe how many “cv (1).pdf” files I get sent. “job_title-resume.pdf” also isn’t very helpful
• I don’t know if all systems do this, but I am able to see how many roles you’ve applied for at my company. I have strong reservations about considering someone who’s applied to hundreds of roles, it very likely means you are not the specialist I am looking for
• don’t include emojis in your name. 💸📈 may alphabetize you first but it just means I’ll be moving you to the reject pile sooner
• don’t imply you have 4 years experience doing X when you’ve held a job for 6 months and also had a summer internship for 2 months 3 years prior. That’s not how this works
• don’t write a cover letter or message with ChatGPT, that’s a red flag for me
• if you’re not Kyle, apply like Kyle
• and if you are Kyle, maybe reconsider your fit for the role.

Final words

I understand you get lots of conflicting advice, and there is more than one correct way of doing things. All I want is a brief message directly touching on the points in my post to express why you’re a good fit (I say very explicitly what I am looking for and what I am not), with a resume attached. If you’re not sure you meet the requirements or have a question about fit, be explicit about what you need to know. It’s ok to follow up if I didn’t respond, but (a) give it time, and (b) understand that I get literally hundreds of messages and I can only respond to so many. Have patience and grace, I will try to do the same. And if you’re on the market – good luck, it’s tough out there.

 

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