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Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Top 10 Job Seeker Mistakes

Here are some good tips from a CEO about job hunting.

Top 10 Job Seeker Mistakes
Fred E. Coon, Chairman, CEO Stewart, Cooper & Coon

So many people wonder why they have trouble getting a job. They go on interview after interview, thinking they did well, but then don't get a call back. This can lead to frustration, anger and depression. Most people do not know why certain people are hired, and why others aren't.

Following are 10 mistakes that many people make when searching for their dream job. Hopefully, after reading this article, I can help you avoid these blunders.

1. Mailing Unsolicited Resumes
Unsolicited resumes are garbage, scrap paper, wasted effort and job-search (junk), according to Jack Chapman, author of "Negotiating your Salary: How to Make $1000 a Minute." Frank Traditi, Career Strategist and author of "Get Hired NOW!?" feels the same way. He says that people "treat their job search like a direct mail advertising campaign. They expect great response from blindly sending out hundreds of resumes. They wait by the phone and it never rings. They sit at their computer and never get a response."

2. Looking for "Vacancies"
Many jobs are not advertised. Harvard's Mark Granovetter found that 43.4 percent of jobs are created for the applicant, often at the time of the interview. Traditi agrees. "It's no wonder that job seekers spend many months on their job search, or become so frustrated that they give up looking for work. They are looking in all the wrong places," he says.

3. Inept Networking
When people are beginning their careers, asking their friend to get them a job probably works. Once people enter the senior job market this strategy doesn't work anymore. Person-to-person networking is a highly effective way to land a job.

4. Trying to Go After too Many Types of Jobs
My friend Jack Chapman put it best when he said, "Don't confuse a job market with a singles bar." You will not find a job by applying to everything and hoping one lands in your lap. You must pick certain targets and go after them.

5. Losing Your Motivation
It is hard to face rejection on a daily basis, which is what usually happens when people are looking for a job. However, you cannot let this rejection get you down or you will never find a job. If you want your job search to be successful, you must look at life with the glass half-full, not half-empty. The most successful people have a positive attitude, no matter what life throws at them.

Read the rest of Top 10 Job Seeker Mistakes >>

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Frankly, I'm tired of reading these know-it-all articles telling people how stupid it is to look for jobs in the newspaper or other listings of job vacancies. They always talk about how most of the available jobs can't be found there. I sure wish that they'd include information about where these jobs are instead of just telling us where they aren't.

Anonymous said...

I am confused. How are unsolicited resumes bad when 43.4% of job openings are not advertised? If the job is not advertised, and I don't know to apply, then how do I get the job?