Four Typical Job-Search Blunders

By Taunee Besson

From the National Employment Weekly

No one is expected to be an expert job hunter. After all, unless you're extremely lucky or unlucky, it's a skill you'll need only a handful of times in your career. Yet without a basic understanding of what's required to assess your skills, identify opportunities and sell yourself to prospective employers, your searches can last far longer than necessary.

While there's been some fine-tuning in recent years regarding how people should look for new positions, the basic job-search process hasn't changed. Neither have the mistakes many candidates make, whatever their job level, expertise, age, education or intellect.

Like many situations for which there's little pre-education, such as taking care of a newborn or recognizing the hidden agendas in corporate politics, initiating a job campaign can mysteriously erode your common sense and turn you into a victim of your own ineptitude. By reviewing classic blunders that befall even savvy professionals, you can avoid falling into their collective trap. Read on to discover their consequences and how you can steer clear of lengthening your search needlessly.

Blunder #1: Many job seekers never figure out what they really want in their careers.

There are several consequences of this error. First, candidates miss a golden opportunity to identify the skills, interests, values and personality traits that will help them make real contributions to new employers, while also boosting their level of career satisfaction. Second, if you don't know what you want and have to offer, you can't tell others who might be able to help you. Third, misdirected job seekers often waste a lot of time considering mediocre opportunities. Many eventually take jobs that are completely unsuited for them without even knowing it (at least, not for some time).

To mount an effective job search, you must know both what you want and what you have to offer potential employers. To achieve this, you must create a benchmark job description. Before you start networking, answering ads or sending out direct-mail inquiries, think carefully about:

• Your transferable skills you enjoy using most.

• Your outstanding special knowledge or technical abilities.

• Your most salient personality traits.

• The working conditions and people environment you most value.

• The components of a reasonable compensation package geared to your level of responsibility and experience.

Once you've identified the most important elements for each of these issues, combine them into a cohesive paragraph that will also serve as your two-minute commercial. Then, when you're networking, looking over help-wanted ads or contemplating whether to accept an offer, you'll have the self-knowledge to make the best choices.

Blunder #2: Many job seekers rely exclusively on classified ads, executive-search firms and direct-mail campaigns when looking for new opportunities.

This "let-the-other-guy-do-it" approach forces you to abdicate control of your search by putting the burden of responsibility on others who, in most cases, neither know you nor care about your future. Therefore, you'll be constantly sending the ball into other player's courts, and you'll never be able to develop or maintain momentum.

To expedite your search, concentrate most of your time on networking, since it has the best track record for uncovering opportunities. In fact, the latest national surveys show that more than 60% of all salaried positions are filled through networking. Talk to your relatives, friends, fellow volunteers, school alumni, church members, former business colleagues and anyone else with whom you have a natural affinity. Attend continuing-education classes in fields that interest you, go to job-club and networking meetings, and ask people you meet for names of others they think might be willing to help you.

The key to successful networking is to make each conversation a vehicle for sharing information that's mutually beneficial to both parties. In other words, be ready to give as much as you get.

Blunder #3: Few candidates research jobs, companies or industries before sending off resumes, networking or interviewing.

From a potential employer's perspective, candidates who don't have a solid understanding of a company's business and industry are so-so job seekers who appear more interested in themselves than the jobs they're pursuing. Only truly outstanding credentials will propel someone from this easily ignored group to the interview list. By not conducting research, you'll also miss the opportunity to test whether your expertise, skills and values will be a good match with a position. Your lack of knowledge weakens your case in a recruiter's eyes, because you can't explain how your background specifically meshes with the job you're seeking. You'll end up wasting everyone's time by chasing the wrong positions. Instead, learn as much as you can about the job you're pursuing by using a combination of research techniques:

• Use your local library's reference department to uncover background information on each company. Read each company's annual report, as well as relevant articles in trade journals and local and international business publications.

• If you have computer access, spend time researching the appropriate databases, on-line bulletin boards and Usenet groups on America Online, Compuserve, Prodigy and the Internet. If you're willing to spend the money, order customized company reports from Dun & Bradstreet, Dow Jones & Co. or other firms that keep track of corporate performance.

• Take advantage of the knowledge that contacts within your target companies might be willing to share with you. People enjoy helping one another, especially if they feel they're giving you "the inside scoop."

Blunder #4: Many job seekers spend days developing one perfect resume.

When completed, they expect their resumes to be all things to all people, and they use it for everything: answering ads, contacting search firms, direct-mail campaigns and networking. They rationalize that a tailored cover letter is all they'll need (although many don't even customize their letters).

Generic resumes rarely produce results because they don't speak directly to an employer's needs. Recruiters rarely bother to pick the diamonds from the dirt. They figure this is the job seeker's responsibility, and they're right. Obsessing over creating the perfect resume also can become a great excuse for procrastination: "Well, I can't go talk to him yet because I don't have my resume ready."

Remember, too, that electronic resume-scanning systems--now being used at many companies--target key words. That means a real live person may never see your uncustomized resume. It will be relegated to the great hard disk in the sky, then purged within six months with nary a human glance. This is particularly true if you're a career changer who uses a traditional chronological resume without regard to its impression on potential employers. The only job interviews you'll be invited to attend will be for positions in the field you're desperately trying to leave.

The best approach is to tailor both your cover letter and resume to every ad, networking lead, direct-mail target and search firm. If you have a specific objective in mind, you can cite accomplishments, key words, skills and personality traits that mirror its requirements. And the more you know about the position and company, the better you can customize your resume to zero in on what the employer really wants.

While this requires more effort, the payoff will be worth it. You'll not only land more interviews, you'll also make better use of the time you spend talking with prospective employers. And thinking through the process of writing a tailored resume is one of the best ways to prepare for future interviews.

One final piece of advice: Never accept a position you don't really want. If you have doubts about an offer that's on the table, identify the source of your discomfort and ask probing questions to interviewers, current company employees and your prospective new boss. Make sure your gut feeling about the position is positive before climbing aboard. Life is too short to live with regret.

Ms. Besson, an NBEW bimonthly columnist, is president of Career Dimensions, a Dallas-based firm specializing in career development and job-search programs for professionals and corporations. She's also the author of "The NBEW Guide to Resumes" (1994, John Wiley & Sons) and "The NBEW Guide to Cover Letters" (1995, John Wiley & Sons).