Here’s a question I sometimes pose in workshops for job seekers when I’m asked about the “right” way to do a job search: Do you want to do a perfect job search or do you want to get a job?
Of course, the second option is the popular answer. So why isn’t that priority reflected in job seekers’ actions? Why does it sometimes seem as if people were trying to win job search awards instead of jobs?
One answer is an overload of advice about job searches. There’s so much out there, you can’t help wondering which tips are “right” and which are misguided. I can answer that: If it sounds dumb, it probably is. Even if the so-called dumb advice is working for others, if you have serious doubts about it, you probably won’t enact it well. Let it go and concentrate on job search steps that are producing results for you.
Which brings us to another reason people seek out perfection in lieu of effectiveness -- they don’t always know how to measure effectiveness in such an amorphous situation. With no idea how to measure results, they keep changing the process. That makes it difficult to see if any particular method is working, so the cycle continues.
If you fall into this camp, the following benchmarks will help determine which parts of your job search are producing and which might need a revamp.
1. An effective job search will produce leads. If that isn’t happening, check your networking process, your job goal, your research methods, and your follow-through.
2. An effective job search will produce interviews. If not, you may have a problem with your resume, your cover letters or your approach to employers. If you rely on job ads for your leads, you may need to recalibrate your search, or move away from the postings altogether in favor of networking to find unadvertised jobs.
3. An effective job search will produce offers. If you’re getting interviews but not offers, you know where the problem lies. Focus your troubleshooting on improving your interview performance.
What if you have settled on a job search process, and you are troubleshooting the stages as suggested above, but are still trying to do this process perfectly? Then you must face the truth: You may be a perfectionist.
If your pattern in other arenas is to do something until you get it right, a job search will stymie you. That’s because you can’t be sure you’re doing it “right” until you get a job. Every day that passes with that goal unmet is another day the perfectionist in you wants to tinker with the process.
But doesn’t it make sense to do a perfect job search, to ensure you get a good job? Yes, except it doesn’t seem to work that way. If it did, there’d be one book about job searches instead of thousands, and everyone would get a job within a very predictable amount of time.
Maddeningly, a job search is only part strategy, with a large helping of luck. The only sure way I know of to beat the odds is to increase your numbers: more contacts, more follow-up, more conversations and meetings.
When you get a job, it won’t be because you perfected your job search. It will be because you were in the right place, at the right time, with the right message. To make that happen, you have to spend some effort crafting the message and choosing the places (and contacts), but then you have to turn it into a numbers game.
There are several things you don’t want to overdo, as your perfectionism will eventually hold you back instead of propelling you forward.
Don’t:
- Over-research companies without an interview scheduled.
- Repeatedly proofread the same cover letter.
- Revise your resume over and over.
- Compulsively visit the same online job boards in fear of missing anything.
- Read everything possible about job search.
- Overthink things like an elevator speech or other scripts for imagined scenarios.
- Overdo informational interviews in lieu of jumping into the actual job market.
Of course, you want to do a little of each of these things; just not so much that it keeps you from racking up those leads, interviews and offers.
That brings us to yet one more reason people become perfectionists in a job search: It protects them. The more you stay home and tinker with your job search, the fewer face-to-face rejections you receive. But limiting those rejections also limits the chances of positive personal interactions. Since most jobs are gotten through contacts, this outcome is probably the best reason of all to stop being a perfectionist.
Amy Lindgren owns Prototype Career Service, a career consulting firm in St. Paul. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecareerservice.com or at 626 Armstrong Ave., St. Paul, MN 55102.
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