Bad advice:
Job seekers should learn to tune out terrible tips from others
As the job market heats up, everyone has become an expert when it comes to finding work. Your uncle? He has plenty to say about what you should be doing. Your
sister? She’ll tell you what you’re doing wrong. And your roommate’s mother? She’s got all the answers. Or maybe she doesn’t. Maybe no one has given the advice you need. But you can be sure of one thing — they have plenty of advice that you don’t need. The solution is to tune out the bad stuff. We asked around for some dated career advice and received numerous suggestions. Here’s are some oftenoffered job search and career tips that may be well past their “sell by date”:
Wait your turn: While there’s something to be said for employees who actively seek information and are willing participants in the group process, biding their time until a new opportunity reveals itself, the days of sitting tight and quietly waiting for your turn are long gone. That’s not to say you need to crawl over the backs of your coworkers to get ahead. Instead, keep your eyes open for new opportunities within and outside of your current employer.
New job titles are created all the time based on companies’ changing needs, including market trends, customer retention numbers, economic realities and more. Don’t feel like you have to participate in a traditional hierarchy of power if you have skills that can benefit your employer in different ways. If your company decides that it’s not necessarily ready for the role you’ve envisioned, you can keep working and quietly look for a company that recognizes what you can bring to the table.
Go with a traditional resume: The linear resume is certainly helpful when establishing a timeline of your work experience, but don’t feel like you have to base your resume on the chronology of your career. It’s OK to lead with your greatest accomplishments even if they took place during a previous job. Recruiters are looking for people who can get things done, and the easiest way to identify those potential employees is by assessing what they’ve accomplished. Find a resume format that lets you stress your top accomplishments and list your most relevant jobs
without taking someone through the career equivalent of “This Is Your Life.”
Don’t blow the interview: Wait, that’s bad advice? Of course not. No one is suggesting you tank the interview, but the message behind the directive certainly isn’t as relevant as we once thought. The workplaces of America are filled with people who had mediocre interviews at best, and disastrous, sitcom-worthy interviews at worst. Most recruiters recognize that today’s job applicants are real people. They get nervous, they forget things, they sometimes interrupt others, they fidget when they speak and they don’t always look people in the eye. That only makes them human. So until cyborgs have completely taken over the workforce, humans will continue to hire other humans, which means that humans with flaws will continue to hire other humans with flaws. It’s much more important to avoid
putting a ridiculous amount of pressure on yourself to have the interview of a lifetime for a job you especially want. Whether or not you get the job depends on a number of factors, not just the interview. Prepare, do your best and if
you don’t get the job, move on.
‘You gotta get your name out there’: First of all, thanks for humoring your uncle when he practically belched this
little nugget of advice into your ear after his sixth spiked lemonade at last weekend’s barbecue. Granted, there is something to being active and visible, but you want to put your name in front of the right people. The problem is that
too many job candidates take this advice to mean they need to put their name in front of everyone. While it used to
be commonplace to mail out a bin of resumes on Monday mornings after job candidates went through the Sunday job sections, consider the dangers of a job search that’s not limited by the cost of postage stamps. Today’s candidates can apply for 100 jobs online without cramping a finger. The problem is that there isn’t much benefit in applying for jobs you’re not qualified for and jobs you don’t really want. You’ll probably won’t even make it through the first phase of application bots to begin with, so it’s not worth your time. Plus, it puts you in the wrong mindset. Focus on
jobs that are beneficial to you with companies you can help make better. You’re not throwing birdseed, after all. Pick and choose your companies and apply accordingly.