1. Not keeping track of when, where, and to whom you sent your resume. After a while it is not possible to remember everything, so you spend valuable time trying to figure out what you have already done. You will, for example, want to resubmit your resume to companies again at some point, but not every other day. An easy solution, which also helps you to not become overwhelmed, is to keep a log. Keep track and log other items as well, such as certain websites and other things you did during the day as you looked for a job. You do not want to duplicate tasks and waste mental energy trying to remember what you have done.
2. Getting online, turning on the tube, picking up a paper and being sucked into reading or listening to the negative stories the media is selling about the economy, unemployment, and the overall end of life as we know it. It is NOT the case and you are doing yourself a disservice by engaging in such activities. Many know that the news sellers actually perpetuate irrational fears and negative situations, and they are partly to blame for many of the problems we incur (self-fulfilling prophecy). Resist the temptation to let them reel you in. Focus on YOU, your job search, and something positive instead. Avoid the temptation to participate and comment in online negative discussions. That is not going to help you get a job. If fact, it will make it more difficult. There are no jobs or only bad jobs for you if you make a mediocre effort to find one, or if you do not prepare appropriately.
3. Submitting your resume for a job through a job site and not directly to the company. You need to avoid the temptation to apply for a job through any other means except by sending it directly to a company. Yes, it is very tempting to do otherwise. If a job board tells you who it is, then go directly to the company's website. If they do not tell you, do not spend your valuable time applying. If it is a real job, you can figure out who it is with a little effort. Copy and paste a partial description or a unique sentence into a search engine and see what it produces. You will often be surprised with what you find.
4. Waiting for a recruiter to come up with a position for you. Recruiters are great, but many things have to take place for you to be placed by a recruiter. It is not that easy. Not all, but many, do a lot of trolling on job sites by posting jobs that are not exactly real in the hopes that they can find a great candidate to shop around. Even actual companies do this on occasion when no opening exists. Also, if a company is going to pay a recruiting fee for someone, it is because the candidate has something really unique or valuable to offer in terms of skills, experience, etc. Even if you do have that kind of background, it is certainly no guarantee that they will be able to help you. Utilize when appropriate, but do not waste all of your job search time dealing with recruiting organizations.
5. Having a weak resume, which means your job search is likely going to take longer. There is just no excuse for a less than perfect resume. HR, Hiring Managers, Staffing, and Recruiters give preferential treatment to someone with an exceptional resume. It is your ad, your brand, and your selling tool, so it better be outstanding. Poll Human Resources professionals and almost all will tell you that the resumes they receive are usually somewhere between poor and brutal. It is often hard to critique or do an accurate self-assessment on your resume. It is kind of like the Idol contestant who cannot sing, but really thinks they can.
6. Posting your resume to the wrong sites, and to too few sites. If you feel compelled to post somewhere, only do it with brand name organizations. Posting to only one or two will not be worth the effort since no job site has the market cornered on employers. If possible, go in and refresh your resume once in a while so it does not sink to the bottom of the list. Posting to an endless number of obscure job boards is certainly not advisable. Do not "sign up" for a job board with your resume in order to apply for or search jobs. Most of these job boards push posting a resume, or creating an account, so they can bombard you with useless information.
7. Blowing an interview by not being thoroughly prepared, arriving late, not researching the company, forgetting a resume, dressing poorly, or any one of a number of careless things people do while job searching. Focus on what you are doing, and if need be, make a checklist of what you must do to prepare. You need to treat interview opportunities like gold. Not following up on interviews, including a thank you note to the hiring manager, interviewers, recruiter, and everyone else involved, is also a big mistake. Take the time to do it. During the interview get business cards and email addresses. If you know that a position is still open, occasionally stay in touch with the company and hiring manager. Do not make assumptions about the status of a position, or anything else. MANY candidates are hired long after the interview has taken place.
8. Going it alone and failing to engage friends, networks, associations, and anyone else you can think of to find a job. This may involve joining professional networking sites. You do not need or want a fancy profile, just the basics. Be aggressive, but not obnoxiously aggressive, in terms of networking. Hey, I lost my job, I really need a job, do you have any jobs available, is probably not the best initial approach.
9. Relying on one or two of the national job sites. You know all of the big boards, but do not forget the niche sites. Many employers do post to them. Get very skilled at using all job boards efficiently because there is a lot of garbage on them that will steal your time. Doing searches specifically on a company name or other non-traditional keywords may help to uncover opportunities. Don't just put in the same keyword search every time you show up to a job site. Think outside of the box and experiment.
10. While important, you need to do more than rely on job sites. Spending countless hours sifting through 20 job boards is not how you get a job. Pick a couple and stick with them. It is very unlikely that you are going to miss a job listing on some obscure job board, considering many are just re-posting positions. There are literally millions of employers in the U.S., but there are not millions of them using job sites. What most of them are using, however, is their own company's website for recruiting. Searching for companies directly needs to be part of your plan. Keep in mind that the overwhelming majority of employers (85%) in the U.S. are considered small companies. Large companies can be nice to work at, but it cannot hurt to keep your options open. There are an endless number of places to research companies so you can apply directly. These include the Better Business Bureau, associations and organizations, online yellow pages, financial websites, local / city government sites, etc. The key to a new job is to utilize many avenues. One of them will come through.
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