Job Seeker? Use ZipRecruiter to Correct Bad Job Search Habits

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Man with head down after calculating bills If you’ve been out of work for a long time it’s important to understand the pitfalls that can come along with work absences on your resume if you’re not careful. As is the case with any other situation in life, it’s  possible to fall into a less-than- productive routine. There are numerous bad habits that could be keeping you from landing that next big gig.

Check out the following three major bad habits that job seekers commonly fall into after being unemployed for a while, and then discover how job distribution service ZipRecruiter can help you correct these areas:

1. Becoming Apathetic

Once you get used to being unemployed, it can be easy to let apathy take over sooner or later. Make sure you’re not getting overly casual and nonchalant about your job seeking and redefining your ideas of what it means to have a “busy day” in all the wrong ways. Most people say you  should treat looking for work like a full-time job; spend the same amount of time, energy, and effort seeking employment and making contact with potential employers that you would working a normal 9 to 5. Wake up bright and early and then spend your entire day sending out resumes, calling around, following up, and so forth.

How can ZipRecruiter help in this area? After setting up your job seeker profile, the company allows users to create job alerts based on a certain title, skill, from a particular organization and based in a specific geographic location, which will be sent to your email every day. This helps minimize the time consuming part of every job searchthe actual job search. Now, it will be that much easier to view job hunting as a regular 9 to 5 because you’ll already have a ready-made list of jobs for you to apply for each day.

2. Growing Desperate

Some people have the exact opposite problem to the apathy issue mentioned above. They get so desperate that they actually forget what they were initially looking to achieve in regards to their career path. They apply to any and every job that crosses their path and lose all sense of direction and discipline. Even in the face of unemployment, it’s important to keep your eye on the prize in regards to your job search. Don’t turn your nose up at any good opportunities in your field, but do make sure you’re focusing your efforts on the jobs you want and need.

To help combat desperation, you can use the ZipRecruiter job alert feature listed above and you can also try out the “save jobs” tool. This simple step of clicking the star beside each job posting automatically saves that job for you to view and apply to later. Set aside some time for job hunting one day where you just save every job you find that truly pertains to your interests and the type of role you’re seeking. Then, as you continue searching over time, you can refer back to your saved jobs in ZipRecruiter whenever you feel yourself leaning toward desperation.

3. Turning Negative

While it can be really tempting to sink into negativity and decide that there’s absolutely no way you’ll ever find decent employment again, it’s important to realize that this is probably the quickest and most common path to failure. Employers are looking for energetic people who have plenty of pep, optimism, and drive to accomplish something amazing. The more broken down, tired, and negative you allow yourself to become in regards to your job seeking efforts, the less you’re going to appeal to prospective employers. Even if you think you’re hiding it well, negativity does show; so, it’s best to wipe it out of the picture altogether.

If you begin to feel negative, why not submit your resume to ZipRecruiter’s resume database? Adding your resume to this database allows thousands of hiring managers and recruiters to see your resume and possibly contact you with future job opportunities.

Ultimately, it’s important to treat searching for a job with the same seriousness, focus, and energy that you would actually working at one. Once mastered, your job search will lead to inevitable success.

By Shala Marks