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Meet the four kinds of job applicants that should not be you

The jobs portal, Bayt.com recently came up with a nicely written piece about the four kinds of job applicants that, by all accounts, should not be you.

1- Spell-Check John

Spell check John

John is a young job seeker who is passionate about finding a job as quickly and efficiently as possible. He wrote his CV in one sitting and let the spell check on the computer do all the work, not bothering to give his CV more than one quick skim for errors before sending his CV off to as many employers as possible.

There are two problems here. The first is that any job seeker who wants to get a job efficiently, should not have a one-size-fits-all CV because the more generic the CV is, the less likely it will be perfect for a specific role

The second is that there are a lot of errors even spell check can’t save you from. For instance, “definitely” becomes “defiantly” and there goes your chances.

2- Autobiographical Sally

Sally

Sally wants her customized cover letter and searches the net for one that fits her requirements; but finding nothing, Sally writes her own cover letter and talks about everything that led her up to this point – her grades in school, after-school activities, the reason she chose to study her university degree, hobbies and interests and why she wants to be the chosen employee at this company. Sounds great except that cover letter has a whole lot of ‘me’ and a total lack of what the company really wants to know which is how she can help the company.

Your cover letter should, of course, talk about you as a candidate, but don’t mistake it as a chance to divulge your life story. Keep it on one page and focus on the side of yourself the employer does want to know about.

3- Overconfident Sasha

Overconfident Sasha

There is nothing more frustrating than making it through the worst parts of your job search, getting your CV and cover letter noticed by an employer and impressing them enough to call you in for an interview….only for you to hit a wall there. Some jobseekers like Sasha has no problem getting the occasional interview, and has followed all the advice she could find. The problem is that her effort pretty much stops after the application step.

There’s something akin to a high that washes over you when you get called in for an interview – it’s called overconfidence.
Make sure you prepare for the interview by fully reading through the company’s profile as well as perusing their website for any additional information. Remember, you need to be able to not only answer questions, but ask some questions of your own.

4- Networking-novice Daniel

networking novice

When Daniel first starts looking for jobs, he dives in headfirst. He makes an account, fills in her CV and starts applying for the jobs that stood out for him. Like many of us, he also sends cover letters for each application and makes sure his CV was up to scratch. Unfortunately, he stops there. You might not immediately see the problem in this case, because it is what most people do. They write a CV and cover letter, send it off to x number employers and wait for the phone to ring. But what if it doesn’t?

What many neglect when applying for jobs is networking. Yes, not making new contacts and building relationships can be the thing holding you back. A lot of people tend to give up socializing when seriously looking for a job, so it might be shocking to some to think that you should be doing the right kind of socializing throughout your job search.

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