Top Five Job Search Must Do and Must Avoid Doing – Tip 8
Top five things you must do!
1. Be clear on what you do
You are competing with many more people who think they also can do what you do. Your greatest strength is your record of success at doing what you do. You and everyone else must be crystal clear about what you do best.
2. Build on your experience
Employers prefer candidates who have most of their experience in their industry. If you need to change industry, you must then find the words to describe your industry experience in a way that a different industry will understand and accept.
3. Contacts are key
Networking for employment will be most effective if you concentrate on building relationships with others so they will want to help you. People don’t become trusted friends at a casual encounter. Taking the time to build relationships is an investment in yourself.
4. Your resume is your brochure
Simple is best, content is king. Say what you want, what you are best at doing, an achievement story or two that demonstrates and reinforces your skills, followed by your career history and other capabilities that enhance your employability – period!
5. Stay focused
Plan your days. Set priorities and stick to them. If you say you’ll follow up, you must do so. Review the results of what you have achieved each day and what you learned that you can use in the future. Ask others to keep you accountable and report back to them.
Top five things you must avoid doing!
1. Lack of clarity
Tell different people different things about what you want because you don’t want to avoid any opportunity. The result will be that no one will know exactly what you do best and won’t be able to recognize the perfect opportunity for you or refer you to others.
2. Too many resumes
Change your resume every time you send it out. The result will be that your message of what you tell others will never be consistent with the message in your resume or a potential employer will receive more than one version and will not know the real you.
3. Aggressive networking
You approach networking as if you are doing it for business, collecting as many business cards as you can, and having a sheaf of resumes handy. The result will be, without building a relationship with others, you won’t get effective referrals.
4. Depend on others
Send out resumes to all the recruiters and employers you can find and then wait for the calls with job opportunities. The result will be that you will waste money and time that could be better spent making contacts with others who could actually help you.
5. Negative thinking
Relax, do chores, play golf, think that it’s a recession and you’re not going to find a job now anyway. The result will be that you won’t find a job because no one sees you as motivated and won’t be motivated to help you.