Part 2 - Top 10 Job Hunting Mistakes to Avoid

Last time, in our series on the Top 10 Job Hunting Mistakes to Avoid we discussed the importance of understanding the personality of the interviewer and making sure you respond during the interview using the appropriate language, familiarity and personality.

The second Job hunting mistake we should all avoid making is No.2. Not Keeping track of your accomplishments. I bet most of you will have had to work late trying to write your annual performance review. Scratching your head trying to think of what you did in Q2 last year is always difficult. Similar, if you've just been approached about a very interesting career opportunity and need to quickly turn your CV around you can save yourself valuable time simply by having a reminder of what you've worked on over the last year.

There is no 'right' way to do this. The key is coming up with a system that requires very little effort on your part to record your accomplishments in a safe place.

My preference was to use Outlook and create a 'Performance Review' folder where I'd keep emails reminding me of all my achievements including stakeholder sign-off emails, positive feedback about work I'd lead, and significant documents could all be found quickly in one place.

Having an organised filing system can help job your memory too. One tip is to have a folder for each year in your Documents folder and group all your work for each project in a new folder.

Every time you start a new role, whether it be with the same company or a new one, you should try and make a note to update your CV. This may be asking a lot as we all lead busy lives, and the last thing most people want to do after researching, applying and interviewing for their new job is to re-visit their CV again! At the very least, do yourself a favour and keep your folders, files and emails organised and grouped so you can quickly refresh your memory about all those accomplishments as you need to.

What's next in the Top 10 series?

1. Not understanding the character of your interviewer
2. Not keeping track of your accomplishments
3. Leaving on a bad note
4. Not networking
5. Only using the Internet for research
6. Writing a generic cover letter
7. Not targeting your CVto the position
8. Not paying attention/ being empathetic in an interview
9. Not being prepared
10. Not coming across well on the telephone interview

No.3. Leaving on a bad note; why you should never be tempted to have the last word!

Oliver

Top 10 Job Hunting Mistakes: Not understanding your interviewer

In the first of the series, we explore the importance of judging your interviewers character (though this can be applied to any relationship, both at work and at home) and how that affects the answers that you give.

This post is inspired by a great book by James Borg called ‘The Art of Influencing People’. The book is well worth a read and goes into detail about how to interact with different personalities in many different scenarios to get the best results.

It struck me that exploring and understanding the personality of your interviewer could be key to your success. You spend your whole life (subconsciously) assessing people’s characters, and then changing the way you behave to suit the person and situation. Often however, this goes out of the window as soon as you are in an interview situation. You can get a good idea about the interviewer’s personality and style when they greet you or when walking to the interview room. Being able to work out their personality type will help you respond appropriately and win them over – as personality defines attitudes, perceptions and beliefs.

Although there is a huge amount of research into personalities, in order to keep this advice practical, I will group people into four types from which you decide how to deal with the various types. People can largely be grouped into:

1. Senser
2. Intuiter
3. Thinker
4. Feeler

The first two, Senser and Intuiter, relate to how your interviewer will ‘take in’ information. The Senser will like facts. When taking in information, they tend to be practical, observant and skilful in remembering facts and processing them i.e. they are methodical. The Intuiter pays attention to the vision of what could be. They rely on imagination and are constantly on the lookout for new ideas and stimulating projects. They like new and different experiences.

The second two, Thinker and Feeler, relate to how your interviewer will make decisions. The Thinker relies on intellectual processes to make decisions – based on logic. They will decide impersonally. They might be oblivious to the feelings of other people. For a Feeler, logic may not play a significant part and instead they will rely on emotion. Decisions will be made on personal values and what pleases them - they tend to show a lot of empathy.

Your interviewer is likely to be a combination of the Senser / Intuiter and Thinker / Feeler. The way you should communicate with them should change depending on these combinations.

If they are a Senser – Thinker they will want facts, stability and will make practical decisions:

• Tell them what can be achieved in the short term
• Use facts/ data if you have it
• Conduct yourself in a detached, business like manner
• Don’t waffle in your answers – be concise

If they are a Senser – Feeler they will want verifiable facts, believes in loyalty and trust and being friendly and helpful:

• Use all your natural empathy and conduct things on a personal basis where appropriate (i.e. talking about personal life etc)
• Try and find a shared interest
• Listen intently to what they say and do not interrupt
• Answer questions in a methodical manner

If they are an Intuiter- Feeler they will decide if they like you based on weighing up personal values. They are enthusiastic and value personal relationships, teamwork, cooperation and new ideas:

• Ask a lot of questions and listen carefully
• Show your natural friendliness
• Don’t inundate this person with detail
• Highlight the things that will be new/ may change if you were to work there

If they are an Intuiter – Thinker they will make decisions based on impersonal analysis. They like to analyse and look for logic. They look at the big picture and focus on the long term:

• Concentrate on business and leave ‘personal’ conversation (if there is any) till the end
• Let them have their own time to speak
• Accept that this person may bombard you with criticism. They are just trying to judge your competence. Don’t take it personally
• Be logical and emphasis cause and effect what you have achieved in the past
• Be punctual and well organised

If you use the above as a guide and tailor your answers based on their character you will go a long way to winning the person over. After all, that’s what you (subconsciously) do every day of your life.

Remember however, you still need to be yourself. You have to fit the style of the company too. Don’t simply act as you think they want you to – you are the one who is going to have to work there. Make sure you are a good fit to the company as well.

Good luck!

P.S. Watch out for the next post in the series Top 10 Job Hunting Mistakes to avoid... 'No.2 Not keeping track of your accomplishments.'

The Top 10 Job Hunting Mistakes to Avoid...

There are many factors that affect you getting the job that you want (or you think you deserve). Some of these factors are totally out of your control; economic factors, decision making process, timing. It’s really not worth worrying about these things too much, so don’t. Rather, concentrate on getting the things that are in your control perfected. Below you will find a list of the most common mistakes from our experience (some obvious, some not so obvious) that people make which sabotage their job hunting success.

Over the coming weeks we will expand on each of the points below. The aim is not to tell you what you are doing wrong – but to provide you with practical advice, looking into factors such as; the characteristics of different interviewers and how to behave with them; the importance of expressions and language in telephone interviews; using the right body language and how to make networking work for you.

1.Not understanding the character of your interviewer
2.Not keeping track of your accomplishments
3.Leaving on a bad note
4.Not networking
5.Only using the Internet for research
6.Writing a generic cover letter
7.Not targeting your résumé to the position
8.Not paying attention/ being empathetic in an interview
9.Not being prepared
10.Not coming across well on the telephone interview

Over the next few blog posts we will go into detail on these points helping you to boost your job hunting success.

Read No.1 Not understanding the character of your interviewer now