Today’s job market doesn’t give you the wiggle room to be anything less than exceptional. We’ve covered these key challenges in the relevant sections of this guide, so if you follow it, you’ll be covered! That said, it’s good to keep these major pitfalls at the top of your mind. Don’t be that guy.
Want to know how to fail? It’s easy…
1. Don’t Follow Up
Follow up, follow up, follow up. The people you are dealing with have full, busy days. You need to stay top of mind. As long as you are aren’t making more than 1-3 connection attempts per week, you don’t need to worry about bothering them.
2. Don’t Personalize Your Resume & Cover Letter
Personalization is about two things: showing investment in the opportunity and displaying yourself in the most positive terms possible. Show investment by clearly displaying investment, through research, connection or visual branding. Consider how to portray yourself and your skills most effectively for each opportunity. This means re-taking and revising the job-section of our assessment for each application!
3. Don’t Research
Research is key to showing that you care, that you can find information and that you are intelligent – three key aspects of the job hunt! Make sure you read the whole company website, including the last few months of their blog, google the company, the CEO and any executives in your field. Additionally, when you know who will be interviewing you, google them too!
4. Don’t Connect with Lots of People
However many people you are connecting with or connected to, you should aim to meet more. A large, high-quality network is the best safety net you can have for your job search. Research shows that “loose” connections (friends of friends and similar) are where the majority of job opportunities are found.
5. Don’t Send Thank You Notes
Thank you notes are a key part of following up. They instill positive feelings about your mutual experience and show that you are organized and effective. Surprise notes, like to the executive assistant who gave you the inside scoop on the dress code, are uber effective and often ensure that you have their vote.
6. Don’t Offer a Clear Value Proposition
Tell companies why they want you! This sounds obvious, but many applicants get caught in stories of what they have done or narratives about what they want. Rather, as a revolutionary, you will tell the company why they want you.
7. Don’t Prepare Your References
There is nothing worse than calling a reference who doesn’t know that they are a reference. And, only slightly better when they don’t know what the industry and position are for the opportunity. Make sure that your references are TOTALLY prepared to speak with potential employers by arming them with the information in advance. Do the work for them – tell them what you want them to say!
8. Be DESPERATE
The only thing you will get if you offer to do anything is nothing. Confidence and initiative are imperative during the job search. You can think of it a bit like dating… no one is attracted to someone desperate. Approach each interaction as an equal.
9. Make It All About You
An application is supposed to be all about you, after all, it is selling you… right? WRONG! This is a very common mistake in sales and it is a killer. Applications, interviews, emails, they are all about the other person and the value you will bring to them. 90% of materials should focus on the core value you will deliver.
10. Don’t Make a Good First Impression
Poor first impressions change the 1 mile jog you were about to go on into an uphill marathon. It may not be possible to recover from a bad first impression. To impress, dress a notch up, stand up straight with deliberate eye contact and learn the art of the handshake!
11. Be a Debbie-Downer
Positivity rocks. No one wants to work with a negative nelly and a positive attitude is often the difference between success and failure. Even when talking about the worst boss and job ever-in-the-world, it is important to have a positive outcome, if with strong lessons learned. How can you change your frustration into lessons?
12. Use Only One Strategy
Today’s market is competitive and deep. It’s important to use multiple strategies for your job search – at the same time and, often, for the same position. Don’t only use big job boards, but don’t totally ignore them either. Build your network, but don’t solely depend on it. Anything you can do to decrease your dependence is gold.
13. Don’t Build Your Network Before You Need It
Networks are something unquestionably best built before it is needed. That said, many people enter the job hunt have to then reach out to contacts that are long-overdue, which can be an uncomfortable undertaking. If, rather, your network is fresh and readily abreast, it will be much more quickly useful and powerful.
14. Uhh, Pepper Your Speech, Like, With, Umm, Filler Words
Nothing makes you come across dumber, quicker than littering your speech with verbal ticks. Like, umm and uhhh all count. Practice taking them out!
Don’t be that guy. Be the one who gets the job offer.
