Top Ten Job Seeker Mistakes – #1

Mistake #1 is “You do not know what you want to do.”

This mistake is made by all ages but usually for different reasons.

For college age, they usually don’t have enough world experience to know what is out there. Since they don’t know what they don’t know, it is hard to figure out what they should do. The response here is that they need to talk to experienced people who can share what they see the pros and cons are for careers in the real world. Placement, personality, and career inventory testing can be helpful tools but are only tools.

For experienced workers, most have either not worked in enough different areas to know how they should craft their career progression or they know that they want to change careers but don’t know where to start. The response here is that they need to talk to career coaches who understand broad areas of opportunities and then focus on talking to experienced people who can share more specific insights.

For executives, many have broad experiences within their fields of prior experience. However as they get older, their priorities may be changing from developing their career to doing something of “significance.” The challenge here is wanting the same lifestyle while shifting to another career. This trap causes mixed emotions and often a struggle over what should they do for the rest of their life. The decision to make a change often results in a disaster because, while they may know their prior career, they are usually not prepared or do not understand the implications of their new career choice. Many life savings are lost by common mistakes. The response here is to consider professional help from career coaches and life counselors before a change is made.

Why are these points mistake #1? Because until you know what you are passionate about and what you want to do, you will waste time and money chasing after any potential idea that gets your attention and you will not be able to get others on board to help you. After all, how can I help you if you don’t know what you want?

Top Ten Job Seeker Mistakes – #2

Mistake #2 is “You don’t know what you want to do. So you try to go after everything hoping that something will work.”

This is when you don’t really know where you will find a job so you shotgun and respond to every potential opportunity, whether it is in your sweet spot or not. After all, you need a job – desperately!

A similar mistake is when you tell others that you will take any job with any industry, any size company, or any level position as long as it pays in the range that you need.

Here is why these are major mistakes.

1. A resume “plays” to certain audiences. If you send out a generic resume to different audiences it is likely to not target anyone and get little to no interest. You cannot send one resume to a Fortune 100 and another to a $10 million company.
2. When you are networking, people can try to help you if you know what you want to do and where you want to do it. If you are targeting all the stars in the heavens, how can they help you to one star? They will usually be nice to you but not spend much energy.

This is a Sales and Marketing 101 mistake that almost everyone makes. Most accomplished people can work in a wide variety of areas. That is not the issue.

The issue is a sales and marketing issue. You have to target what you are passionate about doing, what you are most qualified doing, and where you are most likely to find the opportunity to do it for the level of compensation that you need to enjoy doing it.

Let me put it this way. If you had a rocket ship with just enough fuel to get to one star system, which star system would it be? If you bounce around the universe, you will waste rocket fuel and time. If you know where you are going, you will arrive there sooner and others can help you get there because you can tell them where you want to go!

Top Ten Job Seeker Mistakes – #3

Mistake #3 is: “Do not get help when they need a counselor to help with sense of loss.

Wow! You put this #3 – more important as number 4? Why?

I am a career coach, not a trained professional counselor. We refer to counselors who know how to help those with sadness, a sense of loss, or depression caused by:

• Job Loss
• Dependencies
• Family relationship issues
• Death of a close party
• Close personal experience with life threatening circumstances
• Identity
• Failed dreams
• Failure
• Trauma
• Rejection, Betrayal, or Humiliation
• Emotional or Verbal Abuse or Neglect…

The reality is that all of us have or will go through these issues and have to deal with them. How we deal with them is either suppression, which eventually raises its ugly head, or by getting help from friends, or by getting help from church or a paid professional, or by deeper issues of depression which require medical attention.

When you experience these or similar situations, you should not ignore them. The need for help will exist. Who you should go to, whether help from friends, church professionals, paid professionals, or medical professionals, will depend upon the severity of your needs.

There are many techniques that can help you. But you need to be helped so that you can focus your energies on getting your next job.

Most men think they can help themselves. Going to a career coach hurts ones pride a little. Exposing their personal self by asking for help in these areas is far more difficult. Most men do not go to doctors until the situation is severe. If you need help, please get it. If you need to go to a doctor, please go.

The mistake is to think you can “suck it up” or “use positive thinking” to ignore the pain and its impact on you. I want your success. Please get the help when you need it.

Top Ten Job Seeker Mistakes – #4

Mistake #4 is: Do not get help when they really need a career coach for insights, reality check, and accountability.

Getting help from friends is great. Getting resume help, interviewing tips, and general job seeking ideas from volunteers and internet sources is wonderful.

Whether recognized or not, most of us need more. We need someone who has insights beyond the basics. We need someone who can tell us the blunt truth and be a reality check to the enormous amounts of misinformation and misunderstandings that we either get or have. We need someone who can hold us accountable to keep moving forward.

There are some free resources that can provide these benefits. The difficulty is finding them. In most cases, you should consider a career coach. The cost is usually paid back ten to a hundred times or more.

The question may be your priorities. Which is more important – a football game or career help? A vacation or career help? A new wardrobe or career help? You get the idea. Are your funds going to places that are giving you the return on your investment or simply going out the door?

The challenge is that most of us do not want to change our lifestyles or our investment portfolio so we continue life as it was hoping that we will get back to work before we run out of funds. If that happens, then we did not need a coach after all! If it does not happen, then we may run out of money to pay a coach. Either way, we did it our way! We are not here to take care of coaches!

That is why most people make mistake number 4.

Top Ten Job Seeker Mistakes – #5

Mistake #5 is: “Do not get help. Believe they can do things on their own – but don’t, do by learning the hard way and the long way, or think that what worked in the past will work in the future.”

Believe it or not, I believe this is the majority of job seekers. Why?

1. Perhaps they are depressed, discouraged, or despondent at their situation
2. Perhaps they believe that the world has not changed. If they just wait a little be more, the world will return to catering to them.
3. Perhaps they are arrogant. They were successful, so why do they need to listen to anyone else?
4. Perhaps they are naïve or ignorant. They were successful in HR, Finance, operations, IT, or even Sales and Marketing, so why is job seeking different?
5. Perhaps they are too financially impoverished to get help

We will talk about #1 under Job Seeker Mistakes #3.

Whether the world has experienced a paradigm shift economically, politically, demographically, globally, electronically, etc. or not, you can be the judge. The world is what it is and will be what it will be. Experts I know believe the world is continuing to change – becoming more challenging as each year passes. The question is whether you are willing to deal with the world as it is today.

If a person is arrogant, there is nothing that I can say. The best thing that could happen to them is to be humbled; which is what will happen to most of them over time. My pain is seeing their pain in the process.

If they are naïve or ignorant, they are similar to the arrogant. When the pain becomes more acute, perhaps they will be willing to learn.

If they are too financially impoverished to get help, that is merely a polite way to say that they are really in categories 1-4. Why? A lot of help is available for free. This blog is free. Other people like helping other people for free.

Some resources cost money. A book may cost $15-100. A seminar may cost a lot more. A good coach will cost around $200 per hour. Yet, how much money are they losing every day being unemployed? Anyone can afford to be helped. The question of affordability is whether free help is sufficient or if they want the best help that they can afford.

Please get help from somewhere. Everyone needs to lend a hand to someone. We all need someone to lend us a hand when we need help. Ask for help.

Top Ten Job Seeker Mistakes – #6

The sixth mistake is to get help primarily from traditional sources.

Who are traditional sources? Primarily campus placement services, recruiters, HR, and job board discussion groups.  Since 20% of jobs are through recruiters, HR, and job boards, guess what help they can give you? They can tell you how to chase after 20% of the jobs.

Ask yourself the question, “What experience do they have other than participating in the traditional 20% of job finding methods?” There will be exceptions but:

• Have they been the decision maker in hiring others?
• Do they understand the language of senior management?
• Have they sold products and services into decision makers?
• Do they understand marketing and sales?
• Do they understand relationship and complex solution sales?
• Have they been peers with other decision makers?

The point is that 80% of jobs is through networking into influencers, advisors, and decision makers who refer top candidates to decision makers. Unless those advising you have a strong background in being a decision maker / hiring manager, it is highly likely that their advice will not include what you need to know and do to find 80% of the jobs.

Again, I am not diminishing the help of others in providing great insights and services for 20% of the jobs. You should use them and learn from them. Those skills will be useful. I am suggesting that your PRIMARY help should be from those who have been in the jobs at levels where they understand what really goes on in networking, company politics, and the minds of people like them.

Where do you find these resources? First, from developing relationships with these profile executives who can help mentor you. Second, from career coaches
who have been there and know what you are facing.

Top Ten Job Seeker Mistakes – #7

The seventh mistake is to focus your networking among the unemployed.

There are many groups designed to help the unemployed. Many are through churches, temples, or professionals getting together. Most of these groups bring in speakers, help with resumes, provide encouragement, and foster networking among attendees. All of these benefits are outstanding and helpful. I strongly endorse these groups. In fact, I am often a speaker and attend as a member for a couple of executive groups. These are the good points.

I am not saying to exclude these groups. I am saying that these groups are a great foundation, a safe zone, a training center, a practice center, and a good networking venue – but you need to FOCUS on networking where people are who are influencers, advisors, or the decision makers for the type of job that you are targeting.

Where are these groups? The first question is, “what does the job look like that you want?” The second question is, “Where are those jobs?” The third question is, “Who are the companies hiring for those jobs?”  The fourth question is, “Where do the decision makers network who work for the companies who are hiring for the jobs that you want?” The answer will be different for each of us but the answer becomes where you should be targeting as the focus for your networking plan.

Top Ten Job Seeker Mistakes – #8

Mistake #8 is “Thinking that you are OK.”

You may be a wonderful person. You may be an incredible worker. You may be a highly successful, valuable employee. But right now, you are unemployed.  Right now, the employment market, economy, and trends are the worst in 70 years. You are NOT OK.

Any of us can win the lottery. It is just that in difficult times, the odds are increasingly against us. Besides, if you do win the lottery you won’t have to worry about finding a job! In the meantime, odds of millions to one are not exciting.

Have you ever bought a lottery ticket? I rarely buy one. When I do it is more for entertainment. The odds of my winning are pitiful but for only one dollar I can dream all day about what would happen if I won!

The same is true for looking for a job. We can send in a resume, network, and then sit back and dream that someone is waiting to give us a job – but in challenging times that is not enough. The odds of landing a job will be low. You are NOT OK.

A quote says, “When times get tough, the tough get going.” So, get going and DO something different, competitive, innovative, and what the best and brightest do.

One of those actions is to realize that NONE of us are perfect and OK. Even if you are employed today, you may meet me on the street tomorrow. So, what are the areas that you might start changing and working on right now and tomorrow?

All of us have hidden flaws, blind spots, red flags, and areas for improvement. Time spent in transition is an incredible opportunity to start examining yourself. It is also an opportunity to ask others to help identify those areas that, when improved, can not only improve your odds of getting a job but also help propel you forward in your career and life.

You are NOT OK. None of us are OK. Some of us recognize that we need to continue our path of improvement to be the best and to compete the best that we possibly can.

If you think that you are OK, then you will not bother to change. Then you be worse off than before, while others pass you by.

I encourage you to take the mindset that you are not OK. We all need to keep learning, keep improving, keep examining ourselves, keep innovating, and keep moving forward.

The good news is that, if we do, we will become far more competitive and successful than those who only think that they are OK and are not.

Top Ten Job Seeker Mistakes – #9

Mistake #9 is “Thinking that your resume is a secret weapon.”

I am constantly amazed at how often the first response in job seeker meetings is to review resumes.  Let’s review when most people typically use a resume.

• When sending in a response to a job board posting.
• When applying for a specific job through HR
• When going through interviews with a company
• When working with an external recruiter
• When seeking temporary work through an agency

All of these are legitimate uses of a resume. So what is the mistake?

First, how many jobs do people get through these sources? Experts say less than 20%. So, going these routes is wrong 80% of the time.

Second, how are you applying for jobs? If through the internet, key words are used that are likely different words than you are using resulting in NO ONE actually looking at your resume.

Third, if your resume does get in front of someone’s eyeballs, how deeply will they examine the resume? The answer is an average of TEN SECONDS!

The point is that, in my opinion, the resume is a valuable TOOL, not a magic weapon. Further, that a tool is to be used only when you need that tool.

So, for 80% of the time, when is the right moment to use the resume tool? It is when:

• The decision maker, whom you have networked into, is interested in hiring you and needs a resume to review or to send to HR to start the process.
• A network referral requests a resume – which should be discouraged. Your goal is to get a meeting and use a marketing document.
• You are being lined up for employment interviews and people will be checking out your background and credentials.

For 20% of the time, if applying to internet listed openings, the resume is the tool of choice but certainly not a magic weapon.

Top Ten Job Seeker Mistakes – #10

Mistake number 10 (going down to #1) is “Thinking that anyone is going to give them a job.”

How do I see this? By their attitudes and by how they network.

The attitude is that they think I should care that they are out of work. Ok, I do care. That is why I am in this business. But allow me to be a devil’s advocate. Beyond caring, being sympathetic, or feeling bad for them, unless I have a job for them – why should I be interested in helping someone?

How they network is based upon their attitude. They hand out their business card as though it has fairy dust on it and will magically mean something.

The attitude and networking approach is, “I am out of work”, I need a job”, “I am giving you a card”.  Even if you are entitled to a job, your entire communication sounds like, “Me, Me, Me.”

It reminds me of the wonderful early version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. If you have not seen the movie, I highly recommend it.  There is a scene where a girl, who is always given everything by her Daddy, wants a goose that is laying golden eggs. She says something like, “I want one…I want one NOW!

Sure, we all want a job. We all need a job NOW!

Here is the mistake. When you are the job seeker, you are trying to sell others to buy your services (a job). So, it is not about you, you, you… it is all about the buyer.

No one is likely to “give” you a job. You have to focus on why others should want to “buy” your services. What is your unique value and reason why someone should “buy” your services over anyone else?

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