At Spark Hire, we’re all about the job search and any advice we can give you. However, so are a lot of other corners of the internet: your friends, your family, your doctor, that lady at the grocery store with the purple lipstick. Well intentioned though the advice might be, some job search advice may not be good for your job search. Here are the top five pieces of bad job search advice you may receive as a job seeker, and why you should ignore them.
Never reschedule a phone interview
If an employer calls you for a phone interview without scheduling in advance, you are not obligated to do the interview on the spot. First of all, your phone interview is going to go terribly if you are not in a place that is free from distractions. Second, it is rude of the employer to assume that you can drop everything to talk on the phone with them at any time. You are a job seeker, not their butler, and a phone interview takes time. As Bloomberg Businessweek states, if you are busy when the employer calls for a phone interview you then politely ask them if you can call them back when you are free.
Arrive as early as possible for your interview
It is really important as a job seeker to be on time for your interview. However, planning to be more than 10 minutes early is not a great idea. This creates an uncomfortable situation for the hiring manager as you wait in his/her office for a long period of time.
Be pushy (e.g. call to schedule an interview, stop by the office in person, etc.)
People love to tell job seekers to be aggressive. That is, people who aren’t hiring managers. The reasoning behind this bad job search advice is that your resume is lost in a pile of 100 others, and will never get looked at if you don’t find a way to stand out. However, a good resume and cover letter will make a job seeker stand out in a much more positive way. Unless you have an excellent reason for calling to schedule an interview— the job is in another state and you will be there next week visiting your grandmother— avoid calling or dropping by the office. If you want to work towards standing out, then record a video resume for your job search and send that along with your application!
Send out as many resumes as you can every day
People also love to tell job seekers that they aren’t applying for enough jobs. However, your job search will benefit much more from fewer— but more focused— applications, as stated by US News. Crafting a thoughtful application in your job search takes some time and energy, so don’t feel bad if you can’t churn out a dozen of them every day.
Assume that every bit of job advice applies to you
While researching this article, I found a lot of conflicting opinions. The two sources I used for this articles are actually almost polar opposites of each other; go figure. So, as a job seeker, remember that some job search advice is not necessarily bad. It just doesn’t apply to your job search and you personally. For example, stopping by the office where you applied isn’t being pushy if you know someone there. Arriving early isn’t a bad idea if you happen to know the boss likes early birds (if I were interviewing with my dad, that would be the case). Use your best judgment, and the information you have, to make decisions about your job search. Best of luck!
What bad job search advice have you heard? Leave a comment below, or send me a tweet! @ithinkther4iamb #jobseeker
IMAGE: Courtesy of Flickr by laughlin
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