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Here are ten signs an employer is desperate to hire you — or anybody else who can fog a mirror:

1You apply for a job and immediately get a phone call back from the company recruiter, who breathlessly starts telling you about the job. The recruiter gives the impression that they’d be happy to hire you right now, over the phone!

2. You can tell within the first ten minutes of your interview that they want to hire you.

3. On the first interview, they ask “Can you start working on Monday?” and “Could you possibly start sooner?”

4. They return your email and voice mail messages instantly — very unusual behavior for hiring authorities.

5. They are way less interested in your previous work experience, educational background, career plans or accomplishments than they are in your availability.

6. If they email you with a question or instruction and you don’t reply within a few hours, they email you again.

7. As you’re leaving the building after your interview, you start chatting with someone else who has also just interviewed. That person mentions “Well, that was easy! I just got a new job. I start on Monday.” You walk to the bus stop with them and ask them about their work history. God bless this person, you wouldn’t hire them in a million years.

8. At your interview, they give you a folder full of new-employee paperwork to complete. Evidently they only interviewed you face to face to make sure you are a living person!

9. Even before you’ve had a chance to think about the opportunity, people from the company start writing to you. “We have a new training class starting this weekend — can you make it?” asks one person. Someone else writes “I will get you set up on our computer system.” Why are they racing to hire you? It means there’s a problem — one you won’t discover until you start the job!

10. Your trusty gut says “These people don’t care about you. They just want a warm body to fill the job — anyone would do.”

If you have to take a job like that, keep in mind that it’s going to be a short-term gig. Don’t get too comfortable, because you will only experience disappointment if you do.

If you can afford to keep the job search going and slam the door on the desperation job, do that instead!

All the best,

Liz