I’m often asked to describe the “one greatest error job seekers make when looking for work”. Well, you’re already ahead of me if you figured that there’s more than one, so, I’ll go through a short list of some of the more common mistakes and missteps, and you determine if you’re in the midst of making any of them.
Let’s start with resumes.
Many job seekers, in an effort to be all things to all people, are writing resumes that make them look a mile wide and an inch deep. Their job objective looks like an advertisement for “Jack of all Trades, Master of None”. Instead of focusing on accomplishments, which center and inform the reader, they write job descriptions, which don’t. They include laundry lists of things they’ve been told to do and leave to the imagination whether they’ve completed any of them on time or under budget. It’s the resume that talks; unaware that no one’s listening.
The reader hasn’t time or patience to plow through boiler plate information, or to figure out what the applicant does best or wants to do next.
Savvy resume writers summarize career goals and job objectives and highlight applicable and quantifiable accomplishments that underline and support the direction they indicate they are taking.
The interview: Too many job seekers stumble and fall when asked to explain work history gaps that result from home stay, lay off, and termination. Interviewers are aware that there have been record high layoffs in the area, but that shouldn’t and doesn’t keep them from asking why it happened and how the applicants have filled their time (particularly if it’s been several months) since it occurred. The best response is the one that’s short, simple, and honest. Speaking of responses…
Too many job seekers are inadequately prepared for phone and committee interviews.
Phone interviews are tough. Applicants don’t have the benefit of traditional cues that let them know how they’re doing. As a result they can be easily distracted from the objective at hand: coming across as positive and energetic while delivering articulate, focused, well-edited responses to the questions they’re being asked.
The best way to prepare for phone interviews is to practice by phone with a career coach or a career-wise friend asking questions and providing feedback. Along with feedback on the content of the response, ask, “Is my voice appropriately animated, well modulated, and easy on the ear?” “Am I projecting energy and optimism?” “Am I confirming my understanding of the questions I’m asked, and if necessary, am I probing for clarification, before responding with my answers?” “Am I answering questions succinctly yet completely?” “Am I asking questions that are reasonable and appropriate?”
If you want to track your development, tape record the practice sessions. Just be sure to get prior permission from the person at the other end of the line.
Committee interviews can be challenging, not because the questions are harder, but because the distractions are so much greater. The key to success is “comfort”. If you’re comfortable in your skin, your clothes, in the room, in the chair, the committee is likely to get comfortable with you. Speak and respond as you would in a one-on-one interview: Answer the questioner with good eye contact and appropriate body language, and take care to include the group in your responses.
Many employers suggest that the primary reason interviews go badly is that applicants are inadequately prepared: “He didn’t seem to know what job he was applying for”; “The applicant said he didn’t know why he was terminated, and he was still angry about it.” “When I asked her to describe her strengths she said she’d been out of the workforce so long she didn’t know.”
What does that tell you? Among other things, you have to do your homework, whether you’re changing jobs or changing careers, returning from a lay off, a firing, an extended stay at home, or never having worked in a paying job.
Your homework assignment consists of doing company research (at minimum, read the company’s website), having multiple practice sessions with savvy coaches (male and female), and listening to, and learning from, candid, constructive feedback.
