25 Ways to Sabotage Your Job Search: After The Interview

Guest Post by Kristyn L. Graham

After the interview

21. Not sending a thank-you note

Interview etiquette extends beyond the goodbye handshake. Follow up with the interviewer by sending a thank-you note, either by e-mail or in the mail. Not only is it standard business practice, it's also common courtesy. 

22. Being over-aggressive in follow-up

Thanking the hiring manager for the interview is acceptable. You can even check in to see if a candidate's been hired if you were given a deadline for the decision. However, calling, e-mail or stopping by the office repeatedly is not persistent; it's annoying.

23. Not learning from your mistakes

Not every interview goes off without a hitch, so don't beat yourself up if you flubbed an answer or two. However, if you don't take the time to review each interview you go on, you're bound to repeat the same mistakes again and again. 

24. Forgetting where you've applied and interviewed

After a few weeks, you've applied at more than dozen places and probably interviewed with a few companies. Eventually it's harder to remember where you've sent a résumé or interviewed, and applying to the same place makes you look like an applicant who applies to any posting that pops up, not the best fit. 

25. Stopping your job search while you wait for a response

Even if your interview for the job of a lifetime went well, don't freeze your job hunt while you wait to hear back. For a variety of reasons you might not get the job, or you might stumble upon an even better opportunity. You don't have anything to lose by continuing the hunt.

Greatest Career Tips I Ever Received

Over the years I have actually worked more jobs than the number of years that I have walked on this earth, primarily by working two or three jobs at the same time. But one aspect that I have learned from working so many jobs is just how important it is to take away valuable lessons as often as you can. Therefore I have compiled some of the most valuable lessons or tips that have served me well over my 30+ years of experience in the professional industry and I hope that these tips are helpful to you. 

Over the next few weeks I will post one of these helpful tips each week and hope that you share them with a friend or colleague that might find the tips valuable.  Thank you for being a faithful supporter of Dr. Cris, the Dream Job Doctor.   

Great Career Tip # 1 - Consider your job skills as transferable

I know that all of you have gained valuable skills over the years. And those skills when necessary can be tapped into in order to secure an employment opportunity when you find yourself between jobs. Any skill that you can consider a specified talent is a gift and an untapped resource that can transition you into a career that perhaps you may have thought you were not qualified for. 

For example, when I left my cushy job as a retail manager and started a position as a residential coordinator for a university, one of the first comments that the assistant director of the housing shared with me was that “my managerial skills were transferable,” meaning that all of my years of retail managing customer relation issues could now be used to assist students who live in the residence halls. Initially I didn’t realize exactly what I was getting myself into, not that college life was foreign to me, but living among hundreds of college students at one time did take a bit of getting used to. 

 
The lesson here is simple: what skills can you offer an employer that perhaps you haven’t considered the true value of? What are the skills that you offer that you may consider as routine? Re-evaluate your talents and consider how you can use them in a career that may give you more fulfillment and job satisfaction.