Stop Peeing On Your Shoes- Avoiding the 7 Mistakes That Screw Up Your Job Search. Julie JD Bauke

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      Golly. I’m thinking those are “aha moments” they could have had up front with just a teensy bit of forethought, before they jumped into the hiring process.

      I tell that story not to encourage you to go apply for everything you are not qualified for, but rather to make this point. Hiring is squishy, wildly subjective, and it often seems to be determined by which way the wind happens to be blowing at that moment in time.

      You need to understand that the hiring process is run and controlled by imperfect people. If you expect everything to go smoothly and perfectly, you will find yourself constantly disappointed. Go into your job search with the understanding that things will never go quite the way you plan. It will save you a lot of frustration.

      I have had many clients interview for jobs they were qualified for on paper, only to be thanked later for their time with the comment, “We now realize that we are looking for someone with a completely different background than we thought we were seeking.” (“Gee, glad I could help….”)

      Too often, the hiring process seems to work like this:

      1.Dust off an ad we ran five years ago.

      2.Throw it out there.

      3.See who applies.

      4.Hope we get lucky.

      Does any company try something really daring, like actually sitting down with the stakeholders and getting mutual agreement on what the ideal candidate looks like? Or, creating a selection process with well-thought out questions that would get them as close as possible to actually hiring the right person? Or possibly using a thoughtful decision making process? From my experience, anything like this would be the exception.

      What do you do about it? That’s the hard part. Too often, you won’t be aware that a company is using the “I’ll know the right candidate when I see him/her” strategy or utilizing the “hiring by gut only” process while you are being put through it.

      Human beings are making decisions about human beings—and they are wildly afraid of hiring the wrong person. That’s why many companies use (or misuse) assessments. They are looking for a guarantee that they are making exactly the right decision. Unfortunately, those guarantees don’t really exist.

      All you can do is be aware that this process exists, and vow to look out for yourself. Keep asking questions, and continually align what you can do and have done with what the company says they are seeking. And don’t be afraid to say “no thank you” and move on. Having no job can be better than having the wrong job.

      While we are on this topic, I know it takes tremendous courage to say no to a real, live job offer when nothing else is on the horizon. Certainly, if it’s a matter of putting food on the table, sometimes you have to suck it up. But in that case, never stop looking for something better. You must look out for yourself at all times.

      Your company isn’t going to find the perfect job for you, nor should they be expected to. The days where companies looked out for their employees are gone. I don’t think that was ever a healthy concept or ideal in the first place. It is YOUR career, YOUR life, YOUR responsibility. You can’t pay your momma, your career coach, a recruiter, or a job bulletin board to do it for you.