The 7 Deadly Sins of Job Seeking

Are you making recruiters cringe? Waiting by the phone to hear back from a hiring manager?

Wake up.

You’re sabotaging your own job search. Take a deep breath and ask yourself if you’ve fallen for any of the 7 deadly job seeking sins:

7) I Have an Unsavory Web Presence: Really? In this day and age?  Get that Facebook cleaned up, those Flickr albums locked up. Treat Google and your name like it’s a second resume.

6) I Have Bad Grammar: It doesn’t matter if you’re a CEO or an entry level candidate, you’ll be judged by your writing competency. It’s not necessarily a deal breaker, but glaring typos are a bad sign to see on your resume, cover letter, or Thank-you letter. Speaking of which…

5) I Don’t Have a Thank You Letter: You need one. After every Interview. A quick email will suffice, but a personalized handwritten letter says a bit more.

4) I Immediately Want To Know How Much It Pays: Compensation is a tricky subject. If you bring it up too soon, it’ll look like your priorities are misaligned. You’re saying you don’t care about the company, the job itself. Money is immodest, don’t start a conversation with it.

3) I Skip HR and Send My Resume Right to the CEO: This “advice” pops up now and again from those who think there’s a fast-track to the hiring process. You’ve been fed a lie. The CEO is too busy for your gimmicks. Follow the proscribed avenues first – then try going “around” to get into the company.

2) I Don’t Have a Customized Cover Letter and Resume:You should have at least 3 or 4 resumes saved on your computer for different jobs. Never lie about your skills, you’ll be found out – but you might want to highlight different aspects of your career (aside from your transferable skills across industries) and SHOW don’t TELL how you accomplished various goals.

1) I Went On the Interview. I Must Be All Done: Time to sit back and wait by the phone right? No. Keep applying to positions and going on interviews. Nothing is a done deal until you hear, “you’re hired.”

Job seeking is a full time job – one that you probably don’t want for long! Work smarter, not longer and you’ll have that handshake in no time.