1. Blasting your network with messages about job loss.
✔ Instead: Send a tailored message to a specific person asking for a one-on-one conversation. Start building relationships with individuals. Rinse and repeat.
2. Relying on job boards.
✔ Instead: Take ownership of your job search. Expand your network. Conduct market research. Collect insights from first accounts (via information interviews). Stop Waiting, start doing.
3. Going it alone.
✔ Instead: Partner with a career professional to lessen your time in the market and start income flowing.
4. Reacting, last minute, to job openings. Stop sliding your application in at the due date.
✔ Instead: Plan NOW! Produce a polished resume and application that’s ready when the job OPENS!
5. DIYing your resume from a template. Canva has pretty templates but they lack substance.
✔ Instead: Invest in a course or a professional who can help you demonstrate you’re worth hiring.
6. Winging the interview.
✔ Instead: Prepare and plan stories that demonstrate you’ll make a great addition to the team. Persuade people you’re the best candidate for the job and prove it with examples.
7. Ignoring self-care. When you’re worn down, beat up and bruised – it makes your job search harder.
✔ Instead: Invest in wellness. You’re the product. It’s in your best interest to take care of the product you’re marketing and selling. 😊
Leave these ineffective job search practices out in the cold and land the job you want in 2024!
Related Categories: Advice, Featured, Job Search, Networking
About The Author
Maureen McCann is an award-winning career coach, master resume writer, and master certified interview, employment, and career strategist whose clients include C-level executives, managers, and professionals in all industries including the Canadian banking, oil and gas, healthcare, IT, and government sectors.