5 Common Mistakes Job Hunters Make and How to Avoid Them

Landing a job is always difficult. But for those who graduated from university after the subprime mortgage crisis, you have had the privilege of always searching in a “bull” job market. Now, with the pandemic finishing its first year and the corresponding economic recession, finding employment will be even more difficult. Consequently, it is more important than ever to fine-tune your job hunt strategy to optimize your chances to succeed in your search. Here are some of the most common mistakes job hunters make and how you can avoid them to increase your chances of landing that dream job.

1. Lacking a Plan 

Job hunting is an inherently unstructured process. Every company approaches hiring differently, and processes are run byhumans—humans who make mistakes. Consequently, many job hunters will run an unstructured job hunt, meaning they set no goals, plan no calendar and prepare for interviews only when they have one coming up. The most successful job hunters build some structure around this process. They break down the job hunt into its component parts—most commonly: personal branding, researching, networking, applying, and interviewing—and make sure to practice all five at the same time. They set intermittent goals for themselves—the number of hours to search a day, number of jobs to apply to, number of mock interviews to run—and then also reward themselves once they have completed the day’s or week’s targets. They set dates for when they will expand their search and checkpoints for when they will revisit their entire process to see if things are working. Building this structure can take a bit of time, but once it is in place, it works like a charm.

2. Misunderstanding Your Personal Narrative

Many people have never really sat down to understand their career narrative. They often start their career by aimlessly applying for jobs in university, take the first one they get, and then only change positions when fired, headhunted or reach a breaking point. Very rarely do individuals sit down and think about the trajectory of their career, asking questions like:  “What are my transferable skills? What do I bring to the market I am targeting?” and, most importantly, “What do I want in a career?” Living as an expat complicates things even more, in a time when companies are sponsoring visas fewer than usual. It’s important to understand your narrative internally, but being able to then communicate it externally can really yield results!

3. Employing the Machine-Gun Approach

When job hunters get nervous, they tend to apply to more frequently rather than more strategically. The tendency to focus on too many different types of potential jobs can often result in spreading oneself too thin. If a career changer is looking into sales, supply chain, or consulting roles in the consumer goods, technology or finance industries, they will never be able to compete with the candidate only targeting supply chain jobs in consumer goods. Having a focused approach also helps with research, meaning a targeted job changer can also spend time learning about the job they are trying to get, which will always help them succeed when they get interviews.

4 Emphasizing Applications over Networking

LinkedIn’s “quick apply” button has made it very easy to feel that you’re making progress in the search. In reality, online postings are incredibly competitive. To make matters worse, companies will sometimes post positions online simply as part of a process—by the time that posting goes live on LinkedIn, they may already have an internal candidate ready for a promotion! Instead of craving the dopamine hit of clicking the apply button—think more tactically in your approach. Hiring is a very human process. A simple coffee (if possible) or Zoom chat can yield more results than a full day of online applications.

5. Entering the Negativity Spiral

There is no way around it—this is a difficult time to be changing jobs. COVID-19 has impacted virtually every industry, and for those that are worst affected, finding a job with your previous industry experience can pose an added challenge. That said, many job hunters end up defeating themselves. Any job hunt will always be a numbers game; you may network with many people and apply to tons of jobs, but you only need one process to work out. However, rejections are tough. What often happens is job hunters over-apply for jobs, get lots of rejections, then become pessimistic about the job hunt. Because they are  pessimistic, they then make more recruitment mistakes, leading to more rejections, leading to more pessimism, etc. Understanding that the job hunt can take a while is imperative when entering into a process. Practicing mindfulness, taking time off from searching, and taking on part-time work are all ways to potentially break this spell. 

Mike Mascarenhas is originally from New York, but has lived in Barcelona for over five years, having spent the last few at IESE Business School as a Career Counselor. In his 1000+ hours of coaching young undergraduate, master’s, and MBA students, he has developed an approach to the job hunt called “network-driven recruitment,” working with individuals to focus their searches and find the next step in their career. If you are interested in connecting, feel free to connect with him on LinkedIn or reach out via email.