Have you been wondering why you simply haven’t been hired yet? Believe it or not, the reason you may not have a job after months of searching may not be the employers’ fault – it may be your own. Make sure you aren’t committing these seven deadly job hunter sins if you want to maximise your chances of getting the job you want.

1.      Avoiding the social networking scene like the plague. Unless you really have a good reason to avoid sites like Facebook or LinkedIn, you should be plugging away some updates on your social networking sites. More and more often, employers try to recruit workers by searching for qualified individuals on social networks like LinkedIn. By avoiding these sites, you are hiding from employers who could be looking for YOU.

2.      Avoiding freelancing. Employers want to hire people who do things, even if they are not told to do them. Freelancers have a higher hire rate because employers see them as go-getters, while they see people who sit there throwing their hands up in the air as people who simply demand to have money falling into their lap.

3.       Arriving late to a job interview. Nothing is worse for your chances at a job like coming to an interview an hour late. It shows your potential employer that you don’t mind wasting their time and that you don’t really care about the position. If at all possible, arrive 15 minutes early.

4.       Not taking the office culture into consideration. You need to show that you will fit in with an office – not stick out like a sore thumb. Dressing drastically different from your potential employers, speaking in a manner that doesn’t suit your job, or even giving people an attitude that suggests that you don’t belong is a great way to avoid getting hired at the office.

5.      Being rude to everyone you meet. The vast majority of jobs are attained by networking, so it may not be what you know, but who you know (and are on good terms with) that gets you hired. Employers have been known to dump resumes in the garbage if they see an applicant who is rude to the secretary, or who obviously is trying to sabotage another person’s chances at the job. And if you are networking to get a job, it makes no sense to be rude to someone who may know someone who would love to hire you. You never know who people know, and you never know who may want to hire you, so why would you run the risk of getting dropped from a job line-up just because you were rude.

6.      Making it hard to reach you. You should always be just a phone call away, or at least just an email away, when you are trying to get a job. No employer in his right mind will want to chase down an applicant for a job when they can just hire someone else with the exact same qualifications. Make it easy for them to reach you, interview you, and hire you, and you will likely have a job sooner rather than later.

7.      Being positive and avoiding desperation. Nothing will keep you away from a job more than being negative, and being clearly desperate for a job. This makes employers shrink away, and it makes it very uncomfortable for them to even consider calling you to give you a heads up about openings. Keep your chin up\ – if you keep hunting for a job, you will eventually find one that pays well and makes you happy. 

Unfortunately sometimes we sabotage ourselves without realising it; sometimes it can be our own behaviour or attitudes that are letting us down. We hope these tips will help you in getting the interview you want, so you can then be in the running to gain a job that you will really enjoy.

For more articles and information to help you with your resume writing and interview skills be sure to check out our blogs here!