Mark’s Job Hunting Tip #5: Have a Professional Sounding Voice Mail Message.

When was the last time you listened to your outgoing phone message? Have you ever listened to it? Most people have no idea what their outgoing message sounds like. Call your own phone number from another phone and listen. You might be surprised by what you hear. When you are looking for a job, your outgoing phone message isn’t going to get you a job, but it could cost you one. Quite often, an employer will call an applicant, listen to his message, and then just hang up because he didn’t like what he heard. I have done that myself when calling applicants for apartments. I once called an applicant for an apartment and while I was listening to the guy’s outgoing message, I could hear the sound of vicious dogs barking in the background and a woman cursing at them. I hung up without leaving a message and rented the place to somebody else. Here is my advice:

  1. 1. Record your outgoing message in a quiet room where there is no background noise at all. It is unprofessional to have an outgoing phone message with the sound of a TV or music or anything else in the background.
  2. When recording your outgoing message, be brief, and keep it simple.
  3. Don’t be funny. High school and college students often have humorous or bizarre phone messages, but unless you are looking for a job working as a stand-up comic, you should have a straightforward, humorous, businesslike message.
  4. Speak slowly and enunciate. State your name, say that you are unavailable, and ask the caller to leave a message. If you have an unusual name, state your full name and speak slowly so that employers and human resource reps will know how to pronounce it.
  5. Check your voice mail frequently and return messages promptly.
  6. When you return a message from a prospective employer, call from a quiet place. You may be anxious to return a call immediately, but you could do yourself more harm than good by calling from a noisy restaurant or a subway station.