Avoid 6 Big Job Search Mistakes

Summary

In this insightful session, Kieu Anh Vuong, PhD, delves into the six major job search mistakes that often hinder candidates from landing their dream roles. From over-reliance on online applications to improper networking tactics, Vuong emphasizes the importance of strategic action. The webinar outlines how diversifying too much can dilute your application quality, and underscores the need to show direct value in interviews. For a more personalized approach, Vuong offers individual coaching to refine your job search strategy, ensuring you cut through the noise and find success.

Highlights

• Understand that the job market is challenging, but with the right strategy, you can actually enjoy the process. 😄
• Learn why less than 5% of online applications result in hires and why you shouldn't rely solely on them. 🚀
• Discover the dangers of applying to too many varied roles and how it impacts your job search negatively. 💡
• Get insights into the nuances of networking and why method matters in job hunting. 🌐
• Grasp the concept of effective interview preparation and what it truly means. ⚙️
• Walk away with strategies to articulate your value clearly in interviews. 🌟

Key Takeaways

• Don't put all your eggs in the online application basket! Less than 5% of applications lead to hires. 🥚
• Diversifying roles too much can scatter your focus and weaken application quality. 🎯
• Networking is crucial, but knowing the right way to do it matters more! 🤝
• Proper preparation is key, but make sure you're preparing for the right things! 📝
• Interviews are conversations, not interrogations. Show your value, don't just answer questions. 💬
• Ensure interviewers see your direct value to the company. Clarity is crucial! 🔍

Overview

Job hunting can often feel daunting and overwhelming. However, according to Kieu Anh Vuong, PhD, this doesn't have to be the case. In her enlightening session, Vuong guides us through common pitfalls in the job search process, starting with the excessive reliance on online job applications. She highlights how applying online doesn't yield the best results, since less than 5% of these applications lead to actual hires. Her advice? Diversify your job search methods!

Vuong further emphasizes the importance of applying to the right roles rather than too many varied ones. By scattering focus across too many positions, candidates inadvertently weaken their chances. Instead, concentrating efforts on specific roles increases the quality of applications and potential for success. Vuong also explores the misunderstood art of networking, providing strategies for more effective engagement tailored specifically for job-seeking contexts.

Finally, Vuong delves into interview preparation mistakes. She explains that interviews should be viewed as conversations rather than just Q&A sessions. The goal is to convey your unique value clearly and concisely. Vuong ends with valuable techniques for showcasing your potential impact to a company, ensuring that candidates leave a memorable impression. For those seeking more personalized support, Vuong offers coaching to refine your job search approach and help you achieve your career goals.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Introduction and Importance of Job Search Discussion This chapter introduces the significance of discussing the job search process. It highlights the observation that common perceptions and discussions about job searching may be flawed and ineffective. The chapter aims to expose frequent mistakes and offers actionable steps to improve the job search strategy. The discussion emphasizes the importance of revisiting and correcting the prevalent misconceptions in job search approaches.
• 01:00 - 02:00: Stress in Job Searching and Control over the Process This chapter discusses the stress associated with job searching. It begins with a statistic that indicates 73% of job seekers find the process stressful. The speaker shares a personal perspective, stating they do not find it stressful due to their affinity for the task, acknowledging that their view is not common. The majority opinion is that job hunting is indeed stressful, and the feeling of frustration during the process is acknowledged.
• 02:00 - 03:00: Job Interview Experiences and Insights This chapter provides a discussion on the experiences and insights gained during job interviews. It highlights the often desperate feeling of having tried everything without achieving the desired results. The discussion emphasizes the importance of understanding this feeling and recognizing strategies to improve one's chances in job interviews. Taking control and gaining more understanding of the process can potentially alleviate the frustration associated with the perceived lack of control during job interviews.
• 03:00 - 04:30: Mistake 1: Relying Too Much on Online Applications The chapter discusses the common mistake of relying too heavily on online job applications. It highlights the frustration job seekers feel due to a lack of feedback and not understanding where they might be going wrong in their application process.
• 04:30 - 06:00: Mistake 2: Over-diversifying Roles in Applications This chapter discusses the initial fear and stress associated with interviews and the transformation to an obsession with mastering them. Over the past ten years, the speaker successfully secured dream jobs through this journey, reflecting on the significant change in their approach and outlook towards interviews.
• 06:00 - 07:30: Mistake 3: Ineffective Networking The chapter titled 'Mistake 3: Ineffective Networking' discusses the third common mistake people make, which is networking ineffectively. It highlights the impact of ineffective networking on personal and professional growth, suggesting that many people's dreams might be hindered by not connecting effectively with relevant individuals or companies. The chapter provides six reasons or factors as to why one might not be succeeding in networking or interviews and offers actionable insights to improve networking strategies and success rates in job interviews. The chapter aims to guide the reader in identifying shortcomings in their current approaches and motivate them to refine their networking tactics to gain more interview opportunities.
• 07:30 - 09:00: Mistake 4: Inefficient Preparation The chapter titled 'Mistake 4: Inefficient Preparation' highlights the inefficiency of relying solely on online job applications. Only less than 5% of these applications result in hires, indicating the need for a broader job search strategy. It emphasizes the importance of having a well-prepared resume and applying online but advises against putting all effort into online applications alone. Diversifying job search methods is crucial, especially in a competitive market, to ensure comprehensive coverage and effective results.
• 09:00 - 10:30: Mistake 5: Misguided Focus in Interviews The chapter discusses the common mistake of having a misguided focus during job interviews. It highlights the misconception that resumes account for the entirety of a candidate's potential. In fact, hiring managers and recruiters spend an average of only 7 seconds on an initial scan of a resume. Therefore, it's crucial for candidates to find ways to stand out quickly in the screening process.
• 10:30 - 11:30: Mistake 6: Unclear Value Proposition Chapter 6 discusses the common mistake of not having a clear value proposition when applying for jobs online. It highlights the over-reliance on online applications and continual updates of resumes, which often don't yield desired results. The chapter emphasizes the importance of clearly communicating one's unique value to potential employers rather than just focusing on the volume of applications.
• 11:30 - 15:00: Conclusion and Invitation for Further Help The chapter discusses the feeling of desperation that job seekers often experience and the instinct to speed up the application process by applying to more positions, even when it's not the most effective strategy. It highlights the common behavior of diversifying job applications, such as switching from applying only for UX roles to various other roles, reflecting on traditional teachings of job hunting.

Avoid 6 Big Job Search Mistakes Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Applause] [Music] I think it's really important to talk about this because what I see that what we've learned about the job search process and I see people the way they talk about it is just simply kind of wrong you know it's just not working and um so we're going to highlight common mistakes that you might be making and also going into actionable steps in terms of what you can do um instead and the reason we talk about it I mean it seems is right but the reason we talk
• 00:30 - 01:00 about it really is um you know 73% of all job Seekers say that to hunting is is is a stressful process you know I mean I personally don't think so because I've obviously come to love it but I do see that that's more of an exception and majority people do think that it's uh stressful and so um but I do know the the feeling of getting really frustrated
• 01:00 - 01:30 and desperate to some extent right to feel like you've kind of done everything but still you just don't seem to get the the result that you're looking for and um you know ultimately also understanding how to improve your chances will give you more control over the process because I do think one of the frustrating things is that you do feel like you don't have control over this process right and um I mean you
• 01:30 - 02:00 know definitely not knowing what's going on and what you're doing wrong and you rarely get any really useful feedback either from the process [Applause] [Music]
• 02:00 - 02:30 I really went from hating interviews like I I I was very scared of them I was very stressed about them and um you know I went from that process into being completely fascinated and really almost obsessed you know to you know looking back in the past sort of like 10 years I pretty much got every job that I wanted you know and these are not sort of like uh random jobs right these are really dream jobs you know when I look back and not just my dream but like a
• 02:30 - 03:00 lot of people's dreams too you know they were really like hot companies I have six things for you basically why you might not be getting more interviews than you could um and and what you do about it in order to get more interviews okay that will help you um Ace your interviews like do really well in them you know or pointing out the reasons why you might not be doing well in them okay so six things in total all right next dive in mistake number one is you may
• 03:00 - 03:30 rely too heavily on online applications and the problem with that is only less than 5% of online applications actually turn into higher and so I mean in order to feel like you've done everything and you do want to have done everything especially in this market you do have to have a very good resume you do have to apply online you do have to do all those things right but just know that this is not where you should put all your like your eggs in this bag it basically right
• 03:30 - 04:00 because you know just like um knowing that it only accounts for a very small part of of your potential result also you may have heard you know that um hiring managers recruiters they look at your resume literally for 7 Seconds that's sort of like on average right um that's the scanning process obviously if they're interested in you they're going to look you know look at it longer and read it you know but the scanning and and screening process it's 7 Seconds right and so how do you stand out in 7
• 04:00 - 04:30 Seconds you know there's and so there's only so much that you can do and so all I'm saying is the heavy Reliance on online applications and that comes with also like resume updates and all these things people focus heavily on this okay and this is the mistake number one mistake number two so you know this um this process of sort of applying so first of all you apply online a lot right and then you don't get the result that that you want so then now you're a
• 04:30 - 05:00 bit desperate a bit more desperate right and you want to speed up the process and so what what do you do you apply to more um rules you apply to more places you know so you amp up your online applications even though we just said that it's actually not the right path to go but that's just what you know right that's how we've all been taught to to handle the job market and so that's what you do and then on top of it what you also do is you diversify the rules so instead of now just applying for a ux
• 05:00 - 05:30 research role you say that you're also a research a ux designer or maybe you are also uh a bit of a data analyst actually you know or maybe you do a bit of data V visualization you know and so you apply to some sort of like some kind of front end end job as well um and then you know you might think like yeah but I'm actually not so bad at um organizing either so why don't I also apply to some um design program manager kind of roles you know and um I mean it seems really
• 05:30 - 06:00 intuitive right and I've done that I've definitely done that you know sort of like looking at things thinking yeah I could do that I could probably do that and this I couldn't really do but I need to increase my chance I'm going to diversify the roles that I'm going to apply to and that is mistake number two and um the reason for that is because it takes you to all sort of different places and it goes into that sort of like quantity over quality thing you know it really depletes you it takes your focus away from where you need to be focusing and it makes your the
• 06:00 - 06:30 quality of your applications in the end um actually um lower than than than it could have been mistake number three is that you know we all heard about networking networking and that being important and it is important but the problem is nobody has actually told us how to do that some people are naturally better at it but in general there's also a very specific way of networking in order to like networking as part of the
• 06:30 - 07:00 job search process that is also different than just in general expanding your network you know for more sort of career growth um and um I personally did not know anything about it right and so when I look back knowing what I know now looking back I basically did everything that you could be doing wrong when it comes to next mistake number four is the wrong preparation I see people spend a lot of time on Preparation well sometimes actually also not a lot of time to be honest right um but a lot of
• 07:00 - 07:30 people do spend a lot of time and effort um in into their preparation and so it's not so much the the problem with effort or being lazy or anything like that but I do see that they do it um not they don't approach it the right way they don't prepare for actually the the right thing mistake number five is when you know they also candidates are very focused on when clients come to me they're very focused on sort of like how they might anticipate the questions and
• 07:30 - 08:00 how to answer those questions correctly in the interview and I mean you know obviously you shouldn't answer them wrong if there is right and wrong but it's you know that's not actually uh what what that conversation is about it is truly a conversation where you let them guide and lead the conversation that is true that does not mean that it is sort of like a investigation where you have to answer the questions correctly that's not what what it's there for mistake number six is that it's you come out of the conversation
• 08:00 - 08:30 and it's not quite clear what the Direct Value it is that you're going to add to the company you might be a very impressive candidate but in the in in the um interviewers mind it might just be still sort of like yeah that was really impressive but I wonder how exactly they're going to you know succeed or do that year you know and so if they leave with that question you didn't do your full job so these were the six big mistakes I keep seeing people people doing over and over again
• 08:30 - 09:00 when searching for the next role I hope you learned something today and more importantly I really hope you can apply them directly to your job search but I do also understand that some of this is going to be a little bit trickier and it's going to be easier said than done especially when it comes to things like effective networking to get referrals effective networking to tap into the hidden job market or when it comes to things like how to convey your message
• 09:00 - 09:30 your value in a way that hiring managers are excited to talk to to talk to you I've helped many others just like you getting over the Finishing Line much faster and with much much less drama so if you just watched this webinar and found it helpful found it useful but you still have some questions then just hop on a call with me and I can tell you exactly what you need to do in order to get the job that you want you can talk to me directly by going to
• 09:30 - 10:00 www. esvp coaching.com /all that's it talk you soon bye [Applause] [Music]