Creative Job Search – Job Search Basics

John is a hiring manager for a major corporation and has just interviewed someone that he thinks would be perfect for his organization. The candidate has a proven track record at his previous company and is well known in the industry. John is so thrilled and immediately starts working with his human resources team to put together a job offer. He just can’t believe that he found someone so ideal for the job.

A few days later, John gets a letter in the mail from his number one candidate. It is a thank you letter that reiterates his qualifications and desire to work there. As John reads the letter, he thinks to himself that this guy really knows how to market himself and has substance to back it up. Then as he reads the closing sentence, his heart sinks. John immediately calls his human resources team to cancel the job offer.

What did this top candidate say that resulted in such a reaction? Well, it was a careless mistake that any one of us could have made if we neglect to carefully proofread our work. This job seeker wrote that he has always wanted to work at Worldwide Computing and couldn’t imagine working anywhere else. So what is so wrong with this closing statement? This statement would be perfect if John was an executive with Worldwide Computing. The problem is that John is with Computers Unlimited. Worldwide Computing is John’s biggest competitor.

I think we can all guess what probably happened. This guy had applied for a job at both companies and interviewed with them both. He wrote one thank you letter and did a copy and paste for the second one. He was very careful about changing the name on the letter and the mailing address, but he missed the company name that was mentioned in the body of the letter. Another way this could have happened is that he truly got confused and got the company names mixed up so that neither letter is correct.

This example shows how critical it is to proofread your resumes, cover letters, and thank you letters. Make sure to check for more than just spelling and grammar mistakes. The critical mistake above would not have been caught with spell check or grammar check.

The following are a few other common mistakes:

• Getting the names of the hiring managers mixed up between the various employers. The hiring manager will not appreciate you getting something as basic as his/her name wrong.
• Recounting a conversation they had during the interview that was actually with another interviewer.
• Getting the addresses mixed up. Custom tailored letters end up being sent to the wrong companies.

Before getting too creative with your job search, you need to make sure that you have the basics down. This will ensure that your job search campaign will have the most impact, and more importantly, get the best results.