Mistakes to Avoid Making While Job Hunting

While I was hunting around for some job hunting advice I found A list of 9 job interview mistakes. While what that covers is important, it is also somewhat obvious. Anyone who stopped and made a job search strategy should have thought about more than half of those. I know that I am not perfect at hunting for a job, other wise I would have one, but I think I am pretty good at it. I figured out 8 of the 9 just fine without needing to be told.
 

How You Carry Yourself

My past few interviews I have actively acted cocky (maybe I was just overconfident). I was trying an experiment, I used to be more shy and quiet, and I wanted to see the change in reaction. In general ‘loud and talkative’ gets better reactions than ‘quiet and hardly says a word’. However, after further thought on this I may not be getting entirely the attention I desire, even though I am getting far more of it. It is more difficult, and involves actually knowing something, but I think I will try ‘talks only when being genuinely insightful or useful’. This strategy also involves being an expert in whatever you are applying for and talking about.
 
Of course dressing well is important too. I was tremendously overdressed for my Google interview, but I don’t think that hurt me. I have heard many stories of the well dressed man getting the construction/fast food/whatever job. I have heard of stories where people were under-dressed guy and did get the job, but they were all fast food jobs or involved having friends on the inside. I have never heard a story about the unshaven guy wearing a Grateful Dead T-shirt, with torn up jeans successfully getting the job, ever or anywhere. I also feel a good set of clothes can make you feel more confident too. How many times has something been off with your clothing, and you wasted your worrying about who noticed and what to do about it? That time could be better spent doing something else.
 
Now for some less common mistakes which I have personal experience with.
 

Getting Your hopes up

I really got my hopes up after the Google interview. The week after that interview I did only the minimum amount of job searching to keep my unemployment. Dumb idea! It was idiotic. It wasn’t a sure thing, yet I was banking on it. Why did I do this?
 
I had learned that it was down to me and 3 other people. I asked the interviewers what they thought and where I could improve, and they could provide nothing for me to improve upon. I was the best pick or so I thought, I had let my cockiness get to me. It turns out that there was another who had all the skills I had, but he was better at troubleshooting network issues. Man, when I heard that… I had never wished so hard for an address and a high powered sniper rifle.
 
Whatever, I went to Qdoba(Chipotle is better though) and ate a giant burrito and got over it. I also somehow managed to keep my calm over the phone. I wet from a giggly state of super-excitedness when they told me who they were, to a infinitely defeated ultra-emo state of self loathing and crushing despair when they told me they had picked someone else. I knew that I had to keep my calm otherwise my chances with them would always be ruined, so I politely thanked him for his time and asked a few probing questions to learn where I need to improve.

Not Following Through

This gets most people. Many people think that once they have submitted the application or resume that they are done. I have never gotten a job except bagging groceries on my qualifications alone. I always new somebody or had the persistence to call every week. Why should they care to you if can’t grab and keep their attention. Have a set plan for calling people back after you send them a resume or give you an interview, I believe this is hugely important. I think this is one of the keys as to why I have greater than a 15% callback rate even though I am contacting primarily high profile businesses.
 
I have also missed a few opportunities because I was tired or distracted. Several times I have seen job postings and thought that they could wait until tomorrow. Treat them all like they can’t. I have missed 10 more because I procrastinated.

Generic Letters and Resumes

I know several people who send out hundreds of resumes for hours each day. For these people it must be easy to get in the habit of using generic cover letters and resumes. I really think that these people are experts at wasting time. Would you ever hire some who said “My objective to is get a position with an organization using my full skills.”?
 
Customize it a little, even if you just use the ‘find and replace’ feature. It is so easy to put [company] and [position], then select “Edit” then “Find & Replace”. I would be much more likely to hire someone who says “My objective is to get the Software Development position with Abc company.”, if I was working in human resources at Abc company.
 
You can customize a cover letter the same way, but then you risk not matching stories and examples with the problems you will be solving on the job. All employers want someone qualified who also has skills like leadership, teamwork, communication, and a dozen other intangible skills. You should have real examples from your work experience in your cover letter demonstrating that your skills match up with they need.
 
I have a large selection of blurbs a paragraph or so in length. These snippets include anecdotes that demonstrate my programming, troubleshooting, leadership, communication, and anything else an HR department is likely to request. I always take an old cover letter, for the header and final paragraph, and swap out the guts with the perfect pre-proofread innards for the company I need. It looks like I took the time to hand-craft it, but it is still as proofread as a generic stuff, and it only takes me about half an hour or so to assemble and proofread a resume and cover letter for any given position.

Final thoughts

Next time I talk about my job hunt I will post some of my blurbs and example cover letters, but for this should be plenty to help my fellow job hunters.