Your Job Search Smells Like Despair
We’ve all seen this: a professional acquaintance looking for a job speaks publicly and dramatically on social media about being hired by someone. Perhaps we ourselves were that person. In my case, I have an acquaintance who will update LinkedIn every week with a reminder that yes, they were still unemployed, except that six or seven months (etc.) have passed since they were last. receiving a check every two weeks.
Although unemployment sucks – I know I’ve been there – public despair is the wrong way to make eye contact with someone who might want to hire you; and with every try, you can actually tell potential employers that they are better off without you.
And it’s not just social media posts that make you look desperate – there are many other ways you can find yourself desperate when looking for a job.
Don’t apply for multiple jobs at the same company.
If you’ve been unemployed for a long time, you have every reason to feel desperate. It’s immensely annoying to wake up every morning to get a job, but there is an irony in the game, and it’s quite irresistible: you cannot seem desperate or you will scare away employers.
One way to avoid this is to stick to one job at every company you apply for. Throwing your resume to anyone with a vacancy will show that you are not particularly interested in any position in the company. Moreover, it will be unclear what you really specialize in, and in the worst case, it will seem to you that you are trying to cheat the system.
Don’t beat the hiring manager
There is an unequal balance when it comes to finding a job. Unfortunately, the hiring manager wields disproportionate power over this dynamic; they can ignore your email and the ghost of you, and really nothing will come of it. It sucks and is a problem finding a job these days.
However, you can do yourself a favor and probably lessen your chances of being ghostly if you don’t meet with the hiring manager too often . If you bombard them with messages of potential updates every two days, they will pick up on your anxiety and may think that you will have a headache.
It is best to come at most once a week (which I recommend, especially if you are feeling friendly enough with the hiring manager).
Don’t say yes to every aspect of the job
You want to be ambitious and obey the demands of the job, but don’t show skills that you don’t really have. Saying that you can do something when you know you cannot and have no experience to support it can negatively impact your chances. If you want to be hired, regardless of your actual ability to do the job well, it will show. Instead, be honest about your skills and explain your plans for correcting the flaws.
Ask questions about bigger issues
Make sure you ask questions about corporate culture, vacation policies, and benefits (once you get to the final stages of the interview). If you don’t ask these questions, you are more likely to pretend to be just a desire to impress.
Ultimately, when it comes to accepting an offer, you strive to provide yourself with the best possible package of services. This includes many things outside of work, not limited to your coworkers, salary, benefits, and vacation pay. If you don’t ask about such things and blindly jump on any offer that comes your way, you will not only be doing yourself a disservice, but you will also seem too desperate in the process.