Three Most Common (and avoidable) Mistakes Job Hunters Make by Patty DeDominic Santa Barbara based Business Consultant

I have owned placement firms which have helped launch over 250,000 careers.
 During the 20 ++ years I owned and grew PDQCAREERS and CT Engineering we saw many “Kamikaze interviews”… or job hunters who shot themselves in the foot for some of the most
 basic oversights:



1. Failure to proof your cover letter and resume. Typos and misspelling can nuke your chances! We routinely screened out applicants who could not spell or did not have enough sense to take the time to make an application correctly. We found that those who were not careful in the application process were always sloppy later too. We found this error on entry level resumes and those of “executives” and professionals too.

2. Failure to follow up. Ask for the job if you want it and check back in. Interviewers and job screeners are busy people who are often juggling competing demands on their time, attention and multiple job openings. It is valuable to follow up and take responsibility for “be backs” as we found that those people who are proactive, who let the interviewer know that they want the job and who follow up and three times more likely to get good job offers.

3. Failure to prepare yourself for this opportunity. Do research on the employer and prepare your references. There are a few basics that separate desirable employees from those who simply show up. Have you prepared yourself and do you understand why the employer should hire you? If you don’t know the answer to this, you can be sure that the employer could have difficulty figuring it out too. Additionally your references should be prepared that you are looking for work and may get called; keep them informed so that they will be responsive when contacted about you. Skilled interviewers know it is often what is NOT SAID or who doesn’t get back to them on references that is more telling that what IS SAID.


I welcome your comments and questions.    Patty@dedominic.com      or please post comments here on this blog.