The Five Worst Ways to Look for a Job

It is really interesting, but the way job-hunters generally look for work and how employer’s generally look for someone to fill a vacancy are the absolute opposites of each other.

You see a typical employer generally fills a vacancy in this order or preference:

(a) promoting within;

(b) hiring someone that is known through a network, or someone that comes recommended by a friend, or colleague;

(c) using a recruitment agency;

(d) advertising both online or in newspapers, and coming in at last place;

(e) an unsolicited resume.

Conversely, a typical job-hunter looks for work the opposite way and by using the five worst ways to look for a job

Using the major job-boards (the least effective on record)

Yes, you can secure a job on the internet by submitting your resume onto online job boards, but this method is one of the worst ways to find a job, unless you have written a ‘perfect resume’ and incorporated loads of key words within the resume for search engines.

The typical success rate for this type of job search process is as low as 4%.

Mailing out resumes to employers at random

 If you have ever used this job search method then you already know how disheartening this method can be.  You might be lucky, but typically almost 95% of job-hunters will not secure a job using this method.

 Answering newspaper ads/specific specialist and small online job board ads

If you are only using this job search method  then you have reduced your success rate to just 5 – 25%, depending on the competition you are facing!  The higher the competition (i.e. greater the salary, perks and prestige of the job), the less likely you are going to get a job this way unless you present yourself as a ‘knock out candidate’.

Employment agencies/recruiters

The biggest error job-hunters make using this method, is assuming that the agency is working for you.  They’re not, they are working for the employer.  For every 100 job-hunters using this method, less than 28% of them will be successful – with the success rate being as low as 5% on the more competitive positions.

Applying for government jobs

Unless you know exactly how to address selection criteria and apply for the right job for your skills mix then the overwhelming majority of job-seekers will not be successful when applying for a government job.  (The success rate is typically around 14%, with the rate a lot lower, if you are not already in the public service sector).

Right, now that I have outlined the 5 worst ways of finding a job – the good news is that you can significantly improve these odds, by:

(a) writing a stand out resume, and/or selection criteria’, or getting these professionally prepared;

(b) networking (ask for job-leads from friends, community members, colleagues and use online and social media strategies, such as LinkedIn);

(c) researching and making contact with key decision makers in organisations; and

(d) undertaking a comprehensive job search campaign that covers ALL the major ways to find a job, with a large focus on networking!