Logo

Five More Reasons Your Job Search May Not be Working

Published: Sep 10, 2010

 Job Search       
A few weeks ago, I outlined 5 reasons your job search may not be working. Here are some additional items to consider as you troubleshoot your job search:

Are you specific in the details you share?

Remember to show, not tell. Give examples, so prospective employers know the scope and the scale of what you are talking about.

When I recruited, a lot of candidates would simply list in vague notions a generic laundry list of attributes — e.g., I learn quickly, I work hard. It was the rare candidate that gave a thorough example of exactly what the objective was, what was delivered, what happened as a result, and what s/he did specifically. The candidates with specific details give the best interviews.

Can you get inspired at will?

I recently gave a mock interview to someone who made little eye contact and had overall low energy. This wasn’t what I remembered from an earlier session, and he admitted that he had a rough week. We all have good and bad days, but you can’t just leave it to chance that a good day will occur when you have an interview. So come up with a process for how you can get inspired at will. Champion athletes have very specific routines when they prepare for game day and so do successful jobseekers.

Do you let doubts show? In later rounds of interviewing, I have seen candidates start focusing less on the interviews and more about whether they want the job. While, yes, you should be using your meetings to get information you need to make a good decision, there is no decision to be made yet.

Don’t second-guess why you are there — you definitely want that offer. You can always say no to the job, but don’t let doubt creep in too soon and give a signal to the prospective employer that you may not be interested.

Have you let things slide?

There is a lot of time between submitting a resume, rounds of interviews, and getting a decision. You need to stay front of mind with everyone you met. They are seeing other people and may forget about you. Don’t let things slide as you wait between stages – send key decision-makers a status update about you and reiterate your interest in continuing the discussions.

Do you have quantity, as well as quality?

You might do everything right, and the positions loses its funding or it goes to someone internal or a better candidate comes along. You need to have multiple leads to pursue at all time. Your job search will stall if you move from only one lead to another instead of pursuing multiple leads simultaneously. You need quantity in your search.

--Posted by Caroline Ceniza-Levine

***