Things to Avoid (like the plague)

Your attitude toward your job search can be your greatest asset. Beware of things that can come across as problems. Just a few quick mentions here:

• If you’re just starting a job search, beware of “begging.” It’s natural to want to find something and quickly. Begging for a job almost never works. Think about how you would react. Yup, same for others.
• No badmouthing of current or previous employer or people in the company. Never! Nothing good can come from that
• First impressions: Be professional. Have a respectable email address. A quality LinkedIn Picture. How about your voice-mail greetings?

Negativity is the great killer of many things, including most hopes of getting a new job. If you don’t like your employer, or your manager, or where the company is located, or the commute, or how expense reports are handled, then maybe those are good reasons to make a change. But telling everyone over and over about those things you don’t like will kill your search prospects! Telling about those things the first time is bad too. Keep it for yourself. Or maybe your close friends, but why would you even want to load them down?

Beware the negative news. Sure, you want to be knowledgeable of current events, but watch out for over-doing it. Worth considering: turn off the TV entirely during your search. Use the time for more productive efforts, and catch your news in a few minutes of drive-time radio or a quick, repeat quick, daily scan of Internet news.

If you have family and friends who are generally negative, limit your time with them. You need positive influences through this process. (but not flattery. That’s a subject for another time. Focus on truth!)

And sometimes, you just need to stop it!

Last updated: 12/22/2014

You can find all my Job-Search related articles here. Please remember, a job search is normally an ordered set of steps. If you try to skip steps, it usually doesn?t work out well.