Succeed in Your Job Search – Avoid These Top 10 Mistakes!
No one likes to make a mistake in their job search at the expense of the job they have applied for. However, errors occur due to misconceptions, faulty guidance or advice, or failure to develop an effective strategy. Also, these mistakes are not just limited to resume writing or a bad interview, but to a lack of holistic thinking.
The following list is not made in order of bug severity, as you never know which bug may be serious enough to make you miss an opportunity. The list is compiled by the different spheres where you can possibly make mistakes. And there will also be more than 10 mistakes on the lists as they all have enough potential to spoil your job prospects.
Top 10 Job Search Mistakes
Making mistakes on resume and applications
1. Not organizing your resume the way recruiters would like.
2. Not highlighting your skills against the essential requirements, boring self-promotion
3. A simply boring or undeveloped cover letter
4. Sending multiple copies of the same resume
5. Poorly formatted resumes and cover letters with spelling and grammatical errors
6. Unprofessional email addresses, font/color selection, and non-specific subject lines, such as “resume.doc”
7. Not following instructions, either due to carelessness or overconfidence
All this is enough to disinterest or annoy the recruiter. Simply put yourself in their shoes and imagine what you would like in a resume that you would shortlist.
attitude errors
1. Assuming the right to work, which is poorly reflected in interviews and tests.
2. Assuming you don’t have the right experience and feeling inferior
3. Attempting to play outside of their league, presenting false information, inflating titles, etc.
4. Insult the interviewer or show pessimism or professional stagnation.
5. Applying for jobs you don’t qualify for in hopes of playing the numbers game; wrongly assuming x of y number of applications should result in interview calls
6. Appearing in interviews at their worst, ie nails and hair uncut, dress or suit unpressed.
7. Applying where you don’t want to work or would turn down the job if offered, for reasons such as higher salary expectations, etc. This is the result of not thoroughly investigating the position.
These attitude mistakes are much more serious than mistakes on your resume and could seriously hurt your chances. Your attitude is the result of crystallized characteristics that hardly change. At least that’s how the interviewers see it.
At the Recruiters Office
1. Only showing up for the sake of gaining experience. Interview Attendance Experiments Don’t Boost Your Skills, But Waste Recruiters’ Time
2. Not trying hard enough to do your best. Do not ask for clarification on a question if it is not clear the first time
3. Bring up salary first (before the recruiter does) or accept a low salary without discussion
4. Being unable to substantiate the claims your resume makes
The biggest mistake of all is simply wondering why recruiters aren’t responding to your resume. If this happens to you, don’t just send more resumes. Get your resume professionally evaluated. If you can correct this mistake, you will have many more opportunities and many more doors will open for you.