10 Mistakes to Avoid in Your Job Search
By Soozy G. Miller, CPRW, CDCC, CDP
10. Let a bad interviewer distract you
Even as an executive, you might come across an inept or inexperienced interviewer during the hiring process. Don’t let their lack of experience or bad attitude deter you. Just concentrate on addressing the company’s needs and proving your point with impact. You can succeed even if the interviewer doesn’t!
9. Rely only on personal connections
Sometimes executives tell me that they have all the personal connections they need to land their next job … and then they come back to me and say, “Oh, I guess I do need LinkedIn ...” LinkedIn, with all its flaws and annoyances, is still the best connector we have. With 1 billion users in 250 countries, I recommend using LinkedIn in addition to personal connections to help you find your next great opportunity. It certainly can’t hurt.
8. Your resume is filled with tasks and responsibilities
I see unhelpful, task-based executive resumes all the time. Sometimes the resume is jam-packed and crowded with useless information, like the summer job at The Gap in 1986. Most of the time, the resume is simply filled with skills and responsibilities, and when you do this, you look like all of your colleagues, instead of standing out. I recommend that, in addition to all of your technical skills, that you add leadership impact and value-add statements. Look like an achiever, not just a “doer.”
7. Unable to talk about your impact
Some executives, no matter how accomplished, are unable to give examples of how their leadership skills brought value. One finance director told me, “My work is complicated, and I work hard!” If you are unable to enumerate and demonstrate how your unique leadership strengths impacted other companies and brought value, you are not going to get very far in the hiring process. And you’re not going to land the job you want.
6. Let age be a barrier
If you ever say during an interview, “I know I’m older, but ...” you have already lost the job. If you are older than 50, your value-add and your expertise are your greatest assets. Use them! Illustrate your impact and all the benefits that your expertise has brought to companies. That will reduce any worries about your age. If you are able to demonstrate specifically how your expertise solved the same problem as the company’s in the past, the hiring team simply won’t care about anything else.
5. Consider inappropriate jobs
You can reduce your job search time as much as 90% by narrowing down opportunities and offers to only ones that you think truly suit you. You’re a good fit for the job if you match the needs of the job in skills, tools, and experience, and if you like the tone of the job description. If you are only reading job titles and only using job titles to determine which jobs you should apply to, you are wasting a lot of time. If you are applying to more than 5 jobs per week and not hearing anything back, you are either applying to the wrong jobs or your resume needs work. Or both.
4. Use common descriptors like “good communicator” and “team player”
On a resume, people tend to say that they’re awesome at everything. This means that most people put “good communicator” and “team player” in their summary and/or skills section, and these attributes are very difficult to prove. For example, not everyone is a team player, despite what they claim. These adjectives are too general, and they are not attractive to the hiring team. For better descriptors, use a behavior and communication assessment like DISC to scientifically determine your strengths. If you must use one of the general descriptors, then at least please exemplify it with how this skill made the company better. “Good communicator” and “team player” ain’t gonna to cut it.
3. Resume that’s hard to read.
Most resumes are impossible to read. This means that the resume contains useless information (see #8 above) and words like, “helped with” or “developed” or “assisted with” or “Used X tool” without any additional information or context. Or the resume is literally hard on the eyes due to bad and confusing design or document corruption. So executive recruiters end up guessing about the information, or they try to read between the lines and infer what the candidate is trying to say. Then recruiters have to make a decision as to whether or not to spend the time to get to know the candidate.
2. Empty LinkedIn profile
I can’t tell you how many executives come to me with an empty LinkedIn profile. Your LinkedIn headline automatically defaults to the title of your first position listed, so instead of putting energy into the profile, many executives simply have that title in their headline. Do you know how many Vice President of IT listings there are? A LOT. LinkedIn is your promotional tool to the world. There are 1 billion people from 250 countries on LinkedIn, and any one of them could view your profile at any moment. But they won’t be interested if you simply have Vice President of IT in your headline with a few skills listed in your About section.
By far, the #1 mistake that executives make when applying for a job is …
#1…Using one resume to apply to all positions
Recruiters call this “Spray & Pray” and it’s totally ineffective and a waste of time for you and the hiring team. You’ve learned from #5 above that you want to be very discerning about which jobs you apply to in the first place. But being discerning won’t help you if you send the same resume to those 2-3 jobs. It only takes a few minutes to read the job description carefully and then adjust the top parts—not the entire resume!—to each job posting. Focus the top parts of the resume to each position (remember, only 2-3 per week) and you will see more results. Guaranteed.
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Better job. More pay. More control.
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