Taken from CrossRoads Ministry Website,

The 4 Killer Job Search Mistakes

Judi Adams · 22. Feb, 2011

This is a very tough job market. Many highly skilled, extremely professional job seekers are taking an unprecedented amount of time to find a job. There are, though, 4 killer job search mistakes that job seekers are making that turn a long job search into an even longer one. This multiple-part series will cover these mistakes and give the job seeker (you) tools to overcome them.

Mistake 1: A Bad Attitude

In the Crossroads Career Network Program, there are 6 steps to the job search:

1. Attitude
2. Aptitude
3. Altitude
4. Search
5. Sort
6. Select

Notice ‘Attitude’ is the first step. In fact, it is the most important step.
When I am speaking to a group, I illustrate the importance that attitude has on the job search. I let them know I am about to say something and I challenge them to tell me if they believe me or not. Once I have their attention, I stick out my left hip with my left hand on it, shrug my shoulders as I turn my head up at an angle to the right and roll my eyes as I take a deep breath. As I’m exhaling I say “I’m thrilled to be here.” “No” is the response from the room. They don’t believe me. I ask them why they don’t believe me; I said I was thrilled to be here. Some will say my stance, others my tone or facial expression all which can be summed up as my body language. I verify that what they are saying then is that they believe my body language over the words I speak and they agree.
The same is true for you. You can NAIL all of the answers in an interview; you can give the best answers that have ever been given to the questions. If your body language is either lacking confidence, closed or showing anger, your body is saying “DO NOT HIRE ME” and they will believe your body language over the words you speak.
No one ever claimed the job search is fun; that is because it’s not. There are a number of things that must be addressed in order to have a good attitude during a job search.

1. Understanding  the New Job Market (and what has changed)
2. Processing the Loss
3. Dealing with Pressure Points

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Understanding the New Job Market

You can’t navigate in the job market unless you know what it is. If you have heard me speak or read any of my articles, you know that I use a lot of analogies. Navigating in the market without understanding it is like navigating in a pitch black warehouse and being told you need to get to the other side of the room. It is so dark you can’t even see your hand in front of your face so you can’t see the other side of the room or the multitude of obstacles in the way. You can work as hard as you possibly can; there is just no way to see if you are making any progress. You will feel like a hamster on a hamster wheel.
Knowing how the job market has changed and what is now required to find a job is like turning on the lights in the warehouse. You can see where you need to go; you can see the obstacles in the way, how to get around them, and you can see that you are making progress. Is it a lovely place where we want to spend a lot of time? No! Yet with the lights on, we can navigate the job market and walk into the next job.
So let’s turn that light on and understand how the job market has changed.
I now turn to another analogy: the telephone.
Rotary Dial Phone
In your grandfather’s day or your great grandfather’s day, they had the large rotary dial phone. The phone weighed a ton and was hard wired into the wall. There was only one phone in the house and it was either in the kitchen (think back to the Lassie show) or at the bottom of the stairs (think Leave it To Beaver). That is like the job market of that day. They had only one or two jobs in a lifetime. My father was in the Navy and then joined Civil Service. My grandfather was a farmer. Think about the oystermen and shrimpers in the Gulf. That is the only job they have ever known and it’s the only job their fathers and their father’s fathers have ever know. Whether you worked in a glass factory or automotive plant, or served as a police officer or fireman, that was your only job.

• One job.
• You retired at 65 with a gold watch, a pension and benefits for life.
• All of the services were done in house. No services were outsourced.
• Big companies meant stability. “As GM, so goes the nation.”

That is the job market of yester-year.
Modular Phone
Then the world moved to modular phones. In almost every room there is a modular plug. You plug a phone into the outlet and expect the phone to work well there and you unplug it and plug it in elsewhere and expect it to work just as well there. You still plugged into the wall though; you worked as an employee for an employer.

• People had up to 12 jobs and up to 4 different careers in a lifetime.
• The day of assuming you will receive a pension is gone and many companies now are cutting back on benefits and 401K company contributions.
• People are living longer healthier lives and don’t really think they will completely retire; they may just change what they do for a living.
• Smaller companies are more stable than huge companies because they are easier to turn around when the industry or technology changes.

This is the job market of yesterday.
Cell Phone
But how many of you don’t even have a home phone anymore; I don’t. For more and more people every day, the cell phone serves as the home phone as well. In the analogy, that means we will work with but not for companies. Another reality of today’s job market is that your next job is not your last. You will be on the job market again.
In this new job market, we are responsible for our own retirement plans and even healthcare. Even if a company offers a 401K match, you may not be there long enough to get vested. Recent graduates may consider purchasing a term life plan that goes from job to job with them than invest in a group plan that is worthless once they leave the company. Instead of going with group health plans, people may consider getting health insurance that continues regardless of the employment situation.
As more and more companies outsource work, we will not be employees but actually contract with companies.
In today’s job market, job stability is a personal responsibility. In this recession, there has not been an industry or professional that has not been touched by this latest recession. We can no longer look to companies to provide job stability. Our identities cannot come from the company we work for but instead from knowing the value we bring.
We may not like the new job market. We may long for the way it used to be. The reality is that the job market has changed and so must our approach to it in order to succeed.

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Processing the Job Loss

We are all human and we were made to go through a certain process in order to heal from a loss. When we lose a family member, we give ourselves time and permission to grieve. The same should be true when we lose a job. Whether we left by choice or where invited to leave, it is a loss. We go through the same stages of grieving as we do when we lose a family member. We have to go through anger, denial, depression, bargaining and, then finally, acceptance in order to heal and move on.
At one event where I was the guest speaker, the person introducing me wanted to make a comment to the group first. Part of his comment was advising job seekers not to have a pity party. I actually disagree. Have a pity party. I did in 2002 when I was out of work for so long. Get party hats and noise makers, cry, get angry and feel bad. And then like any party, there is a quitting time. Set a quitting time on your pity party but while the party is on, do it right. Give yourself time to process the loss. If you don’t, that baggage will still be there as you are searching and can come out at the most inopportune time, like the middle of an interview.
Then, after you get to the last stage of grieving, which is acceptance, go one step further and accept the opportunity. There is a plan that will prosper you and not harm you, that will give you a hope and a future. God promises it in Jeremiah 29:11-17. How exciting! What could be behind that next door? I left a 20+ year career in IT and now I own my own company serving as a job search coach and I LOVE it! Trust me, starting a career as a job search coach after that many years in IT is a real left turn; it is not the normal career path for a techie. People can see though how much I love what I do. You can have a job you love too. What is the plan He has for you? I can’t wait to hear all about it.

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Dealing with Pressure Points

As we have agreed, the job search process is not fun. In addition we need to keep the roof over the head, the car in the driveway, and food on the table. The job search is also stressful on relationships.
Let me ask you a question. Would you hesitate to call 911 if your house was on fire? So far I have not yet met a person who said they would. That’s because it would be absurd not to call 911 if the house was on fire. Even if we were trained firemen, it would be crazy not to call 911 if our house was on fire because we’d like to use the pump truck over our little garden hose and because we’d like the help of others.
So we agree there is no shame in asking for help. In fact, it would be crazy not to ask when we need it.
We have 911 for first responders. We have 411 for information. We have 511 for the Department of Transportation (please do not dial it while driving). We also have 211, the nationwide number for the United Way.
If you think you may need help down the road or at least you want to know your options, call 211. The United Way is the coordinating agency between hundreds of organizations that offer all types of assistance or advice (free or on a sliding scale). Credit card counseling, rent assistance, the latest on mortgage programs, food banks and emotional support and counseling are just a few of the services provided by the United Way organizations. Just dial 211 and they will ask you the type of advice / assistance you need and your ZIP code and they will then connect you with an organization nearest to you that provides the type of assistance you desire.
There is no shame in asking for help; it is actually crazy not to. When you get your next job (and you will, God promises it) just give to the United Way.
A bad attitude will sabotage your job search. Attitude is a choice. Accept that the job market has changed, process the loss, look forward to the opportunity an get help for pressure points. Choose a positive attitude and begin the search.

How This Impacts You

So where are you in the job search process – still understanding the marketplace, processing the loss of your job or dealing with pressure points? Anything I’ve left out in regards to attitude? What would you add?

• In part two, we covered Mistake #2: Not Knowing Your Product and Your Target Market. Job seekers must understand the product they are selling and the market they are targeting before they update their resume and begin their search.
• Mistake #3 was Searching the Wrong Way. The majority of job seekers apply for jobs online yet only 10% or less of job seekers get their jobs that way. The right way to search for a job is through networking.

Mistake #4: Stopping When You are Employed

Your next job is not your last; that is one of the realities of the new job market. You will be on the job market again. Don’t try to do the minimum to get this next job. In fact, you should use this time to get good at the job search.

Planning Ahead: Job Search Tips and Lessons Learned

Some of the practices you have put into place and the pains you went through are lessons for what you should continue to do the rest of your life even and especially while you are employed. Listed below you’ll find a collection of tips to help you streamline your next job search.

• Of course when you land that job you will want to notify your contacts but it doesn’t stop there with them. Maintain these contacts. Don’t let the only time you call Uncle Fred be when you are out of a job. We do have caller ID and if you only call when you need something, he’ll know it is you calling again and be less likely to answer or at a minimum feel used.
• Develop new contacts. As the title of Harvey MacKay’s book, Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty, illustrates you want to develop your network before you need them. Develop contacts in your new department and in other departments in that company. Be intentional about continuing your participation in industry networking meetings and develop new contacts there.
• Increase your marketability. If your company offers employee training, take it. If they don’t, take it anyway; invest in yourself by paying for your own training to keep your skills on the top of the market.
• At a conference I attended in 2008, Jim Collins the author of Good to Great, gave the following as a word of advice to a recent graduate, “Do not spend 5 years getting 2 years’ worth of experience.” Baby Boomers and generations before thought they owed it to a company to work there as long as possible even if, as an employee, they were not growing new skills. With the reality of the new job market being that your next job is not your last, you need to continually grow your skills. After 2 years if you realize you are not still growing your skills, ask for new responsibilities that will develop new skills for you. If the current department can’t offer you that, look elsewhere in the company. If the company does not have a place for you to grow, then you need to go.
• Maintain your marketing materials especially your accomplishment list, a list of training you have taken, and your list of new technical skills. Remember what it took to recall this information when you did your inventory.  Make it easier for yourself by recording these as you go. You can even give your list of accomplishments to your manager before he has written your annual review stating that you are capturing this information for yourself but if it helps him at review time, great, if not, that’s okay too; you are doing it for yourself.
• Keep up on the industry. If your industry is about to fold, get out. If your industry is getting into something new, be one of the first to learn it and then come back and offer to share that knowledge with your peers and managers. That will set you up as the subject matter expert.
• Save aside the equivalent of 8 to 12 months of salary for your next transition.
• Assist others. Think back to the people you encountered during your job search. Some would not give you the time of day and others went out of their way to help. What reputation do you want?
• Do not let your engine cease up by lack of use. Keep your job search engines warmed up to make the next transition shorter and easier.
• Learn from your mistakes or that of other jobs seekers. When you have a positive attitude, when you know your product and target market, when you use the right search strategy and when you do what you need to while employed to make that next transition easier, you will ace navigating this new job market.

www.crossroadscareer.org/2011/the-4-killer-job-search-mistakes