Since my last posting, unemployment rates have risen even higher than they were just weeks ago. If you are looking for work, then you must pull out all the stops. Here are some more job searching mistakes that I see people making across the generations:
Establishing Ridiculous Goals-The other day, someone mentioned a friend was “diligently” looking for work. His goal was to send out one resume a day. By my calculations, he should be employed by the year 2020. A goal of one resume a day is the equivalent to me saying that I will drop one ounce a day in my attempt to lose 10 pounds this year. Not gonna happen…for either of us. I’m all for goal setting, but make sure your goals are properly aligned with the results you are trying to achieve.
Dressing Down to Impress-Lots of people are giving out bad advice these days. Suggesting job seekers dress down to impress those organizations that are more casual in nature is like telling candidates they should dumb down their language to land a job. There is nothing wrong with dressing well for an interview. Try it on for size. You will be amazed how well you feel when you go into your next interview.
Failing to Use all the Tools in Your Toolbox-None of us are smart enough to know which of the many job seeking tools that are available to us will be the one that actually works. So we have to use them all. I know it can be intimidating for Boomers to become “linked-in” or to use “Twitter.” But if you don’t use these tools, you may miss out on some great opportunities. The same holds true for young people, who prefer social networking to face-to-face networking. Get out of your comfort zone and try something new.
Believing everything you read-If you follow the headlines you may think the sky is falling. Yes, it’s tough out there, but people are still landing jobs everyday and new jobs are becoming available as we speak. Tune out the negative noise and focus on what is in your control.
Have other tips? Feel free to share using the comment section below.
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