12 Job Search Mistakes Every Young Professional Should Avoid
You’ve probably spent a lot of time in college or high school learning skills that presumably would help you get a job and become successful. What you probably weren’t taught was a step-by-step process for finding and applying to those jobs. This means you might be lacking some important information about how the hiring process works, what’s expected of applicants, and what employers are looking for when deciding who to hire.
To make the process of finding employment a little easier and help you put forth the most professional image of yourself, we compiled 12 of the top job search mistakes young professionals often make. We’ll explain why they’re problematic and tell you how to avoid them to give you a better chance of landing the job you want.
Top job search mistakes to avoid for young professionals
Mistake #1: Not setting goals for your job search
As a young worker, you’re probably eager to climb the ranks, gain responsibility, and prove yourself professionally. In pursuit of rapid career growth, many young professionals dive straight into the process of searching for a job without first considering the bigger picture.
What do you ultimately want from your career? Where do you see yourself five years from now? What type of positions will help you get on that path? When you fail to consider these important questions, you risk taking a job that doesn’t put you any closer to where you want to be.
How to avoid it: Spend time thinking about your broader career aspirations and consider the types of jobs you could get today that offer a path toward those goals. For example, if you want to be a creative director one day, you should pursue roles in things like copywriting or graphic design with companies that offer room for upward advancement.
Also, set goals for the actual activities of job searching, like editing your resume and researching companies. These tasks take time, which young job seekers often underestimate. Decide how many hours per week you can dedicate to your job search and designate set times during the week when you’ll focus solely on those activities.
Mistake #2: Not tailoring your application materials
If you’re submitting the same version of your resume and cover letter for every job you apply to, you’re making a major misstep. When you fail to customize your application materials for the job you’re interested in, you risk being filtered out by automated screening software and getting passed over in favor of other candidates who make it explicit why they’re the right candidate for the job.
Hiring managers have a very limited amount of time to make a decision about whether you’re qualified. Don’t assume they’ll peruse your resume in detail to connect the dots.
Tailoring your resume and cover letter allows you to highlight how your particular skills and background position you to succeed in the role. It also enables you to pay attention to the experience that is most relevant to this specific job, like writing experience for a communications position or customer service experience for a sales role.
How to avoid it: Create a customized version of your resume and cover letter for every job you apply to. This doesn’t mean you need to start from scratch every time. Instead, use a master resume and update it with the pertinent keywords, qualifications, and skills for each job.
Related: How to Tailor Your Resume to Each Job Application
Mistake #3: Failing to do proper research
When you’re early in your career, there’s one big factor working against you in the job market: lack of experience. Yet employers–even those who are hiring for entry-level roles–want to hear in specific detail how you will be able to contribute to the company. How can you show this if you don’t have much prior experience? By doing your research.
Without proper research, explaining how your skills make you a strong fit for the job and how the position aligns with your larger career goals will be a struggle.
How to avoid it: Before showing up for a job interview, research so you can speak the hiring manager’s language and answer the most common questions like “Why do you want to work here?” with ease.
Read up on current events impacting the industry. Research the company to fully understand what it does. Carefully review the job description and Google similar roles at other organizations to ensure a strong awareness of the duties and requirements.
Also, consider setting up informational interviews with people who are already working in your desired field. These conversations, which are different from a job interview, can give you a first-hand perspective about what it’s like to work in your desired role, which you can then leverage to give stronger answers during an interview.
Mistake #4: Relying solely on job boards
It’s very common to use sites like Google, Indeed, and LinkedIn to search for jobs–so common, in fact, that any opening you find on one of these platforms will likely receive hundreds of applications. That’s a lot of competition.
If you rely on job boards alone to find openings, you’re fighting an uphill battle to break through the crowd and get noticed, and you may struggle to get callbacks.
How to avoid it: Broaden your search by using additional methods to discover job opportunities. Reach out to people in your network who already work in the industry to ask if they know of any job openings. Optimize your LinkedIn profile and set your preferences to ‘open to work’ so recruiters can easily find you. Attend career fairs where you may have the opportunity to be interviewed on the spot. Write letters of interest to companies you’d like to work for to learn about employment opportunities that aren’t publicly advertised yet.
Mistake #5: Ignoring minimum qualifications
It’s a mistake we see ambitious young job seekers make often: applying for positions they don’t meet the minimum qualifications for with the hopes that a hiring manager will give them a shot. While this is an admirable pursuit (and one that sometimes pays off), it can also be a big waste of time and the reason you’re not hearing back on any of your applications.
How to avoid it: Narrow your search to job openings that closely match your qualifications. Review the required skills, personality traits, and experience listed in the job description to ensure you possess most of them. Being mindful of minimum qualifications will ensure that you’re spending your valuable time on the right jobs and increasing your chances of receiving an interview.
Mistake #6: Overlooking soft skills
Soft skills are interpersonal and behavioral skills that aren’t specific to a job or industry, unlike technical or “hard” skills. They include communication, creativity, and problem-solving skills that can be leveraged in a wide variety of positions.
According to a recent LinkedIn survey, nine out of ten global executives say soft skills are more important than ever. Unfortunately, many young professionals underestimate their worth and fail to prominently place them on their resumes, which can mean selling themselves short.
How to avoid it: Read up on the most valuable soft skills and highlight them in your application materials. Look closely at job descriptions, too, as they will call out soft skills that are particularly desired for a position so you can make sure to emphasize them.
Mistake #7: Not quantifying achievements
One big question hiring managers have when considering candidates is, “How will this person contribute to my team?” A good way to show them is by giving concrete examples of your past accomplishments. Instead of doing this, however, too many young professionals fall back on generic descriptions of their job duties rather than detailed accounts of their achievements.
How to avoid it: In the experience section of your resume, give specific details about your most noteworthy or relevant accomplishments in each position. You can do this even if you haven’t had a “real job” yet by describing how you contributed to clubs you were part of, volunteer groups you worked with, or in part-time jobs.
Mistake #8: Failing to network
Many young people don’t view networking as a priority, or worse, they actively avoid it. However, as your career progresses, your professional network will become a valuable source of information, references, and opportunities. The sooner you begin building a strong and diverse network, the faster it will grow and the better you’ll get at the valuable skill of networking.
How to avoid it: Stop thinking of it as “networking” and aim to have meaningful conversations with more people in a professional context. Reconnect with former classmates to check in on what they’re up to. Interact with young professional organizations in your area. Arrange coffee or lunch meetings with colleagues you look up to. Touch base with professors and other people who mentored you during college.
When you speak with people, ask thoughtful questions like “What interesting projects are you working on lately?” and “What are your goals for this year?” Look for chances to help others, like by providing a reference or giving a heads up about an upcoming job opening. By demonstrating a genuine interest in others and seeking to form mutually beneficial connections, you’ll naturally expand your network and be more likely to hear about great job opportunities when they arise.
Related: Step-by-Step Guide on How to Network
Mistake #9: Having an unprofessional social media presence
When you were in college, a picture of you having a little too much fun at a party may have been no big deal. When you’re job searching, though, such images can reflect negatively on you as a candidate and on your professionalism overall
How to avoid it: Before you start submitting applications, do a social media deep clean. Remove unprofessional photos and delete any inappropriate posts. Deactivate accounts you no longer use and set your profile to private on platforms you’d rather reserve for friends than a hiring manager’s perusal.
Mistake #10: Having unrealistic expectations
There is value in having high standards for your employer, especially when you consider that the average adult spends a third of their life at work. However, there are also limitations to what you can ask for when you’re early in your career and don’t have a long track record of success on which to base those demands.
Depending on your industry, it may not be reasonable to expect, say, the ability to work remotely five days a week and have unlimited PTO.
How to avoid it: Make sure your expectations are aligned with the realities of your field and experience level. You can get a better handle on what’s reasonable by browsing sites like Glassdoor, searching threads pertaining to your desired job on Reddit, and perusing job listings from other employers in the industry.
Mistake #11: Not sending interview thank you’s
A thank-you email is a professional courtesy that demonstrates gratitude for an interviewer’s time while emphasizing your continued interest in the position. If you don’t send one, you risk coming across as unappreciative and losing out on an opportunity to put yourself on the interviewer’s good side.
How to avoid it: This one’s easy to fix: send a thank-you email after every interview!
Mistake #12: Failing to negotiate
Negotiating a job offer may feel awkward, especially when you’re new to the workforce. If you don’t negotiate, though, you may be leaving considerable money or other benefits on the table. Learning to negotiate early in your professional life will serve you well over the course of your career.
How to avoid it: Do your homework with our salary data tool or go to sites like Glassdoor and Salary.com to understand what someone with your level of skill and experience should be making. If you receive a job offer with a lower-than-expected salary, come back with a counteroffer that’s between five and ten percent higher than the original offer. You can also negotiate for non-salary items, like a sign-on bonus or paid moving expenses.
By avoiding the mistakes above, you’ll present yourself professionally and ensure the time and effort you’ve invested in finding and applying for jobs will pay off.
