Four Major Job Search Pitfalls

Your job search is a journey that you have embarked on with a destination in mind – you want to get a new job, hopefully with a salary increase. And as you’re going on that journey, various things can keep you from getting to your destination. In this post, I’m sharing four major job search pitfalls and what might be leading to those pitfalls.

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Four Major Job Search Pitfalls

Pitfall #1: You are not landing interviews.

If you are job searching and you’re not getting interviews, there are two things that might be happening:

1 – You are not marketing yourself well.

When you are job searching, you automatically become a marketer and a salesperson.

And what are you marketing and selling? Your skill set and value-add to an organization.

So, you must effectively talk about how you are the ideal candidate for a role on your Career Brand Collateral, which includes your resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile.

The other place you market yourself is in your career conversations when you’re job searching.

Suppose you are not adequately marketing yourself in conversations. In that case, you are not making it easy for recruiters and hiring managers to see how you are suitable for the job, and you will not get interviews.

Only about 20% of available jobs actually get posted online, and 80% are in the hidden job market.

And of that 20% posted online, each job on average gets 250 applications (that’s average, which means some are getting more, some are getting less). With that in mind, you can’t realistically expect a recruiter to read 250 applications. That’s a lot of resumes!

Recruiters take about six seconds to skim the 25% of resumes that make it past the Applicant Tracking System, which is the machine that reads through the resume.

So, if you don’t make it very easy for a recruiter or a hiring manager to understand why you’re the right person for the job, they will not invite you for an interview. They will move right on until they come across somebody’s profile or resume clearly stating they’re the right fit.

While job searching, it is important that you talk about your expertise and value add in a way that makes a recruiter say, “I want to talk to this person some more to see if they are right for this job!“

2 – You are only applying to jobs online.

The second reason you might not get interviews is that you only apply for jobs online.

If you apply and submit your resume online to multiple companies and then walk away and start praying for an interview (known as the “spray and pray” method); you have significantly reduced the chances of getting called back.

I know because I’ve done this math before! When you only apply online, there’s a 98% chance that you will get ghosted by the company. And when that happens, you obviously won’t get an interview.

So, when applying to jobs, even when you apply online, you must take time to have conversations with people.

You can start by reaching out to people working in the company you’re interested in, the recruiter or the hiring manager, and ask to talk with them about the job.

As the conversation flows, you can ask about the qualifications they’re seeking because that will help you market yourself better. Additionally, these types of conversations help make you more than just another name on a piece of paper, which is what the resume is.

There’s no personality, for the most part, in resumes.

So, when you have conversations, you get to show why and how you are different.

You get to show your personality, culture fit, and value-add. And most importantly, you get to tap into the hidden job market.

You might be wondering, “What is the hidden job market?”

Recently, I had a client I was working with one-on-one who was applying to jobs, and she talked about one of the companies she applied to. I said, “Hey, have you talked to anybody in the company?”

And she said she hadn’t.

So, I’m like, “Girl, you know better! You know I’m gonna make you go find somebody to talk to.” which I did, and she did.

She ended up speaking to a director in an organization that she had applied to.

The interesting part is, when she had that conversation with this woman, three things happened to her:

1. She realized from talking to this woman that the company was actually not a culture fit. She told me, “You know what? After talking to her, I actually don’t want to be in that organization. And now I know!”

2. The woman she spoke to had connections with some other companies she applied to. And the woman said to her, “Hey, send me your resume. I’ll forward it along.” And what we know from the data is that you are ten times more likely to get a job when it comes to a referral.

3. The woman then told her, “Hey, I know these other companies that are hiring. Do you want me to send you their information?” And obviously, she said, “Yes!” But she hadn’t seen those companies in any of her searches.

Those companies did not come up when she was looking for roles; that’s what the hidden job market is.

The remaining 70 – 80% of roles don’t get posted online.

So, she had three major outcomes from that one well-spent 30-minute conversation with the Director.

I cannot overstate the value of having conversations while you are job searching. You can’t rely on job boards, LinkedIn job postings, Indeed, Monster or Glassdoor.

You have to talk to people if you want to increase your chances of getting a job. Because whether or not you tap into the hidden job market, you have made a connection with somebody who might vouch for you. They might even tell you what the available roles in the company they’re in are. Whatever it may be, there will likely be some benefit.

Pitfall #2: You are not landing second interviews.

The second job search pitfall is that you’re not landing second interviews. These days a lot of companies will do multiple rounds of interviews. The first one might be a very quick screener. So, it could be a phone call, a video call, a Zoom meeting, or even a LinkedIn conversation where a recruiter slides in your DMs, and you go back and forth.

But then after they tell you a bit about the job… you don’t hear back. They’ve ghosted you!

If you are not getting that follow-up conversation or second call back, two things might be happening here.

1 – You are not adequately articulating how your specific skills and experience align with the role that you’re applying for.

On that first screener conversation, they’re not calling you back if you cannot adequately and concisely articulate how your skill set is a quality match for the job you’re applying for.

Please stop making recruiters do guesswork. Your job is to make it clear to recruiters and hiring managers why you are right for the role while job searching.

With that in mind, when you have that first conversation with them, you need to talk about the skills that you’ve developed, the accomplishments that you’ve achieved, and how they directly align with the job that you’re applying for.

Which then inherently means you should have done your research on the job that you are applying for.

I’m saying this because I know that many people are not researching the jobs they’re applying for.

I’ve had recruiters tell me that somebody will reach out to them and ask questions that don’t align with the job. And they can tell right away that the person has not researched the role or the company to see what they’re looking for and what they need.

You can’t just talk about what you do at your job, especially if you’re trying to pivot or transition into something else.

It is important that you clearly articulate how you will use the skills you already have in the job you are interested in.

So, in that first conversation, you want to start clarifying how your skills directly align with the job you’re applying for.

2 – You are not selling yourself well enough in the first conversation.

This means that you are not articulating your value add, knowledge of the organization, and the organization’s needs.

If there is one time that you need to be talking yourself up, it’s when you are on the job search.

And for the woman reading this, who feels like talking about your accomplishments is “icky”, I’m talking to you now because we’re notorious for this. It is not bragging if you’ve actually done it.

Stating the fact of what you’ve done is not bragging. It is you stating facts.

I have worked with too many women and had conversations with too many women who are so scared to talk themselves up because they don’t want to seem “cocky” or “arrogant” when they’re talking themselves up.

It’s time to talk yourself up! If you don’t talk yourself up while you’re job searching, when will you do it?

You need to be telling them why they need to hire you. Make it clear why you are the one they want for this role.

This is not the time to be humble, do the fake humility thing, talk yourself down, or expect them to read between the lines. No, you’re making it harder for them!

Tell them what you’ve accomplished and why you’re awesome. Share with them your plans when you come into the organization. This is your time to make yourself shine!

If you don’t talk yourself up, they’ll probably think, “Oh, she/he/they can’t really do the job. We’re going to go for this other candidate who has told us clearly how they will make our lives easier.”

Here’s what I want you to know: when you see a job description, it is pretty much a company saying, “Here’s the problem we have, and this is a description of who we want to solve it.” And so, you, in the job search process, have to position yourself as the solution to their problem.

Pitfall #3: You are not securing a job offer.

The third job search pitfall is that you are not securing a job offer. There are two reasons why this might be happening:

1 – You are not interviewing well.

The first reason why you’re not securing a job offer is that you’re not interviewing well, and these are the three main areas where I see people sabotage themselves during the interview:

1. You’re not positioning yourself as a solution.

For example, if the job description says, “Hey, we need someone to come in and lead projects and increase our client retention by 20%.”

Then, you need to be able to talk about how you are going to come in and lead their projects. You can talk about how you can put systems in place for projects to flow better, improve communication, and increase client retention by improving relationships such as client gifting, touchpoints, or excellent service.

Whatever it may be, you need to think outside the box and think, “Okay, this is the problem they have. What will it take to solve that problem? And how can I talk about that in my interview?”

You need to let the interviewer know that you actually understand what they were saying in that job posting.

2. You’re not answering the questions they’re asking.

When they ask you a question in the interview, there’s a piece of information they want to know.

So, when they ask you a question, and you ramble about something else, and you don’t answer their actual questions, you have caused them to lose one of the data points that they would’ve used to decide if you were right for the position or not.

If you don’t understand the question, there’s nothing wrong with asking for clarification.

If you need time to think about your answer, it’s okay to pause for a moment and think about that question.

You can also try repeating the question to them, like, “Oh, so you want to know about a time when I led a project?”

Those small things will help you process and ensure you understand what is being asked so that you can actually position yourself as an expert.

3. You’re not confidently positioning yourself in the interview.

Positioning yourself confidently means having positive body language, making eye contact, and showing up like you know what you’re talking about.

When you’re confident, and you believe you can actually be successful in the job, it’ll show and impact your outcome.

Your body language speaks volumes to the interviewers. And best believe, they are making judgments about your ability to do the job based on your body language.

2 – You are not demonstrating your knowledge of the organization, role, and problem that they need to solve accurately.

The second reason why you’re falling into this pitfall of not securing a job offer is that you are not adequately articulating that you understand who they’re looking to hire for the role and why they want to hire that person.

Once you get to the interview stage of your job search, one of your jobs is to clearly articulate your knowledge of the company you’re interviewing with, the role you’re interviewing for, and why that role is necessary for the organization’s success.

You can articulate your knowledge about the company with the types of questions you ask them about the organization and its goals.

You can articulate your knowledge of the role and the problem it solves with the way you answer the questions they ask you. Meaning, for every question they ask you, think about how you can answer in a way that shows you’ve thought about the role the person in this position plays towards helping the larger unit or organization reach their goals.

The fourth job search pitfall is that you are not getting a value-aligned offer.

So, you get a job offer, but you feel like they’re lowballing you, or it’s not really aligned with what you wanted to get paid at that stage in your life.

I think of two main causes for not getting a value-aligned offer.

1 – You did not articulate your value add well enough.

If you haven’t talked about the value you’re bringing to the table in a clear way, or if you don’t have your value statements outlined, that will keep you from getting an offer aligned with what you’re looking for.

It is important that you have developed what we call value statements before you even begin job searching. Because once you reach the interview and negotiation phase of the process, you should be leveraging those value statements.

Your value statements help you communicate your accomplishments, skills, and experiences in a way that will benefit the organization you are interviewing with.

If you get to the point of receiving an offer and the offer is lower than what you were expecting, then it’s highly likely that you didn’t articulate your value add well.

2- You are not negotiating your salary.

If you don’t negotiate the offer, you will, almost guaranteed, get lowballed.

Negotiation is not optional. Negotiating is not optional, even when they offer you more than you were expecting. You always negotiate the job offer.

If you don’t negotiate and clearly articulate your value add, you will keep getting offers that are below what you’re looking for and that don’t align with your value-add.

A bonus reason why you might not be getting value-aligned offers is that you didn’t do your research. When that happens, you’ll end up applying to unaligned jobs. These are the jobs that are not aligned with the level of money that you desire.

You can’t be saying, “Hey, I want to make $90,000”, but in this industry, only people in middle to senior management get that $90,000 and you’re not at that level in your career yet. So before deciding on what salary you want, you should research the industry.

And then try to understand like, “Okay this is my financial goal, but for this industry and company, where would I need to be to earn that much?”

You need to do your research. Research is a key skill you need throughout your job search and career transition. And so, if you are not researching, you will find that you keep getting offers that are not aligned.

Those are the four major pitfalls that you might be experiencing in your job search. Did any of those resonate with you? Let me know in the comments!