Today, when most opportunities don’t show up unless you persistently look for them, job seekers have a universal problem: looking for a job is hard! With all the competition, all the opportunities, and all the talent scattered globally, job seekers need to be better, more effective, and more outstanding than ever.
How can you rise above the rest and stand out in a good way? You start by modifying your mindset — get rid of these seven false assumptions and get the dream job that you’ve always wanted!
1. Target any kind of job to increase your chances of actually getting a job.
Get real: If you say in your resume that landing Job A, Job B, or Job C is fine, it gives the message that you may not be good at what you do. It tells the hiring manager this: “Hey, hire me and give me whatever position you have. I’m average in all of them, so you can play it safe.”
Clean up your act: Focus on one job position and include all your credentials that are significantly relevant to this position. Give the image that you were born for this position so your employer should hire you, instead of other job seekers.
2. The more pages your resume has, the more likely you are to be hired.
Get real: Quality always trumps quantity. No one would appreciate the fact that you included outdated or irrelevant information just to make your resume appear bulkier.
Clean up your act: Present your information chronologically — from the most updated to the least. (If you’re not an entry-level job seeker, including your high school experience may not be wise.)
3. You can omit valuable information from your resume — you’ll be asked during the interview anyway.
Get real: If important information isn’t included in the top section of the first page of your resume, the hiring manager won’t bother reading the rest of your resume. In a way, resume writing is a bit like novel writing: if you can’t get their attention from the start, your reader won’t bother finishing your book.
Clean up your act: Include credentials that are important and targeted to the job position that you’re looking for. If you’re not deemed qualified enough based on your resume, you won’t be deemed qualified enough to merit a job interview.
4. Your online reputation is different from your real image, so you don’t need to care about it.
Get real: Nowadays, employers do an online search on their potential employees. If they see a provocative Facebook photo, a promiscuous Tweet or a pathetic and sloppy LinkedIn profile, they will definitely think twice about hiring you.
Clean up your act: For you to be better than the other job seekers around, monitor and maintain your online reputation accordingly. Delete those party Facebook photos, remove those negative tweets about your former boss, and fix up your LinkedIn profile. Who you are online translates to who you are offline. Think about that.
5. Who cares about cover letters? Hiring managers don’t have time these days!
Get real: Job seekers are too sensitive sometimes — they think that because hiring managers are overly busy, they are unable to read cover letters anymore. The truth is that cover letters are actually your best bet in getting your resume read.
Clean up your act: Your cover letter can make or break your career, as it is the hiring manager’s first impression of you. Look at the job’s qualifications and incorporate them in your cover letter. Get the company’s vision and mission and include that as well. You get bonus points if you know the hiring manager’s name.
6. The vaguer, the better.
Get real: No one likes reading general and unclear resumes which have no point.
Clean up your act: Be specific. Know what you’re talking about. Use bullet points. Write in the active voice.
7. Write just one kind of resume — the hiring managers will absolutely love how efficient you are.
Get real: Job seekers mistakenly think that a one-size-fits-all resume is okay. It’s not. It spells laziness, recklessness, and negligence — three traits that hiring managers can absolutely do without.
Clean up your act: Personalize your resume according to the job position that you’re applying for and the culture of the company that you want to be involved in.
Which of these false assumptions of job seekers are you most guilty of? Let us know in the comments below!
