Job Hunting? These 4 Mistakes Are Ruining Your Chances

Job hunting is definitely one of the more stressful activities you’ll undertake in your life. It can take months of hard work and copious amounts of ego-bashing until you either land your dream job or give up completely. But what if you’re actually making it more stressful on yourself?  Chances are you are but you don’t know it!

Michelle Bucaria, from JP Morgan is one of the most experienced recruiters in the field. She revealed to Business Insider UK some of the most common yet preventable mistakes she encounters on a regular basis. The good news? Thanks to her tips you you can make the whole job hunting experience a whole lot easier on yourself.

Here are the four mistakes that could be ruining your chances of landing that dream job:

Typos and spelling mistakes

It may seem simple but according to Michelle, “It’s reasonably common — more than you think”. Typos and spelling mistakes could say to an employer that you are sloppy and careless, whereas a well-written, error-free resumé will say you’re meticulous and you care.

Don’t be too narrow with your ‘objective’

Of course, you’re supposed to have an objective listed on your resumé but be sure to keep it broad and relatively neutral to the field you’re applying to. Chances are if you’re sending out 100 resumés you’re not going to have the time to change your objective for each job so make sure your goal is quite general and applicable in most job situations. According to Michelle if your objectives are too narrow it “can dismiss you when you didn’t even mean to be dismissed.” Got it.

Don’t over exaggerate

Now, we know on paper it can be easy to tell a little white lie or embellish a few achievements but you need to remember that if you get called for an interview you’ll need to have the goods to back them up and if you don’t you’re in big trouble! “Sometimes it becomes apparent that something on the résumé seems a little bit better than what you hear in the actual story,” says Michelle. In other words, no telling porkies, y’hear?

Do your research!

Never underestimate the power of some in depth research before a big interview! If you’ve got a helluva lot of research done pre-interview you’ll be super confident and chances are you’ll really impress the interviewer if you throw in one of their crucial stats or achievements from way back when. “You have to demonstrate that you’ve done a decent amount of your own research and have thoughtful questions that you want to get answers to,” recommends Michelle.

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