Most Common Job Search Mistakes People Make While Searching for a Job

A career is said to be the most important thing in anyone's life and a job search is said to be like a journey in which you have to take the right turn to avail the best opportunities. But after countless hours in pursuit of a good job, most of the candidates feel left out which can be said to be a direct consequence of an improperly executed job search strategy. Through this article, you will be introduced to the mistakes you might make while searching a job, so that you can avoid them.

Weak resume This is a common mistake that everyone makes when they start searching a job for themselves. People usually draft a resume that looks like a personal and professional timeline that can easily bore or mislead the recruiter. To get the competitive edge, make your resume more interesting by placing proper facts in it. Instead of writing about the things you did or performed, write about you accomplishments. Make your resume such that it clearly states how efficiently you will work for the organization.

No Online Existence Today, every company's hiring manager or recruiter searches the potential candidate's name on the various search engines to gain knowledge about the candidate's past. So, if you don't have any online existence they will never find you.

As an alternative, they will check out the candidature of other prospects, clearly eliminating you from the competition. Make it easy for them and yourself by creating a smart online identity in the form of business and social networking profiles through various portals like Facebook, LinkedIn, Orkut, etc.

Take Advantage of Leading Job Portals Placing your resume on job search sites will definitely widen the scope of job opportunities for you, but, make sure you do not solely rely on them. Of course, they provide you thousands of jobs but, in reality only 10% - 15% of jobs are advertised on these sites. It means that 85 % - 90% of the vacancies are not present on these sites. Other areas where you can search include:

• Websites of companies, where the openings are placed and updated from time to time
• Making use of the search engines to find jobs al over the internet (but keep a tab on the quality and authenticity)

Lack of Planning and Research Walking on a path without directions, sometimes leads you towards a 'Dead End' i.e. you will never reach your destination and this can also happen in an unplanned job search. Before starting a job hunt, research the industry or the market of your desired field carefully. Helping you to get the desired results within a short period of time , this planning can address questions like-

• What position ar e you targeting?
• In which Industry you want to work?
• How will you search your job?
• How many hours in a week will you dedicate towards the job hunt?

Placing Importance on the Salary Most of us enjoy our work because we get fairly paid for our job. But many of us are not willing to explore more jobs because of the one and only one question 'How much we will be paid?' which is totally a wrong conception. If you are getting a job that you enjoy doing and which pays you fairly as per the profile, then why this attitude? Leave this attitude and don't miss the bus.

Search for new Opportunities While working, everyone's mind shifts from job hunting to job performance. Most of us stop searching even after being stuck in a wrong position, which is totally erroneous. Yes we all know that one should be happily committed to the job for a consistent profile, but one can explore the opportunity to get a higher paid or good position. Always be open to avail these types of opportunities to gain more in life.

Don't worry, Job hunting is not a rocket science, but avoiding common mistakes like these can certainly make your carrier work like a rocket. Always going up, up and up…..