By Jane Han
Staff Reporter

Job seekers who haven't gotten a call back in a long while, ever heard of a recruiter blacklist? Take a moment to look back ― breaking an unspoken rule of recruitment, at one point or another, may have landed you on such a list.

Reasons for ending up on the list range anywhere from showing up late to an interview to rudely responding to an interviewer, say hiring experts, and once on it, it's tough to get off.

``It's kind of like an unofficial permanent record,'' said Ki Eun-joo, a head hunter who works for a Seoul-based job placement firm.

She said recruiters take job seekers' attitudes, behaviors and ethics seriously, especially in today's cutthroat job market.

``It's best to keep your record clean,'' said Ki, who explained that staffing firms are strict in their candidate evaluations as they receive detailed needs and guidelines from employers, who, ultimately, are their clients.

So what kind of an applicant does end up blacklisted?

Career Care, a local head hunting firm, posed this question to 80 of its recruiters and a majority of them singled out ``inflated resumes'' as the quickest way to end up on the list.

Nearly 40 percent of respondents said they immediately blacklist dishonest candidates because ``lying on a resume tells a lot about a person's overall character,'' the poll showed.

Next on the list are applicants who don't show up for a job after getting hired. More than 33 percent of recruiters said employers complain about new hires not coming to work.

Hiring experts, according to the survey, also shun candidates who don't show up to an interview without giving prior notice, behave unprofessionally during an interview and demand high pay during the first meeting.

``Staffing professionals deal with so many job seekers with all sorts of experience and backgrounds that they can make an accurate assessment after only a few interactions,'' said a Career Care official.

She explained that some candidates underestimate the influence of head hunters and refuse to follow instructions and cooperate.

``It's a foolish mistake many older applicants make,'' said the official, who added that ``those people will just end up in the bucket of disapproved candidates.''

jhan@koreatimes.co.kr