Twenty job-search gaffes to avoid

Job-Search No-Nos to Avoid

As hard up as employers are for talent, the crowded job market still puts employers in the mode of screening resumes and cover letters at a glance, and that means no room for error on a job-seeker's part. In the interview process, it's the same way; small missteps can make the difference between an offer and a cursory "thanks anyway" email message or a postcard in the mail. (And sometimes, not even that.)  Some of these twenty job-search "Don'ts" are pretty obvious and others aren't; any of them could trip you up if you're not careful. Here goes:

1. Don't send a resume via email with a note that says "My resume is enclosed" (and nothing else). Gotta spend those extra calories and keystrokes writing something resembling a cover letter. The "resume enclosed" bit is a straight shot to the No Thanks bin.
2. When you send your resume via email or upload it into an online job-application form, label the document carefully. Don't label it KikiRoxBitchez.doc or ArielsResumeonMomsPC.doc. Label the thing with your first name and last name in the most boring way possible, like JackSpratResume.doc.
3. When you send your resume via email, the email message accompanying your resume is your cover letter. Don't include a separate cover letter attachment - that's a waste of everyone's time.
4. When you supply references to a prospective employer, make them all professional references unless you've been asked to include a personal one (or unless you're fresh out of college). If you include a personal reference, mark it that way, and clearly. The reference-checker doesn't want to ring up Mrs. Jones and say "So, Mrs. Jones, can you please tell me when you worked with Jennifer?" and get the answer "I'm Jennifer's boyfriend's mom."
5. If you have a conflict coming up fast - for instance, a five-day vacation within a few weeks, or an ongoing obligation (a not-for-profit Board meeting every Thursday at nine for the foreseeable future, e.g.) bring it up earlier rather than later in the interview process. Don't wait until you get the job offer to say "There's just one thing..." Employers feel bushwhacked when candidates do that. Get the issue out on the table and get it resolved between the first and second interviews, at the latest.
6. Don't send a resume and cover letter from an email address that isn't clearly you, as evidenced by your first and last names in the email address. CowboyDave@hotmail.com is not a suitable job-search email address. Add a middle initial if you need to in order to get your own name in an email address, a la george.r.smith@gmail.com.
7. Bring your resume to a face-to-face interview. No exceptions.
8. Have interview questions ready - it looks bad for you not to have any pithy questions to ask, and I'm not talking about benefits-and-policies-type questions, but substantive questions about the role and the employer's business.
9. Don't list the roster of jobs you'd be suitable for, in your resume. The idea today is that every resume can and should be customized as needed for any job we feel like applying for. So a resume that says "I'm seeking a Project Manager, Product Manager or Marketing job" looks awful, because it shows that you couldn't take three seconds to customize your resume for this job - the one you're applying for today.
10. Don't list your references right on your resume, a la "Karen Smith, Marketing Manager, Acme Foods" with a phone number.  Holy Invasion of Privacy, Batman! Shows bad judgment to toss perfectly innocent reference-givers' names and phone numbers around the job market. Wait until you're asked for references, and then provide them on paper or via email to the requester.
11. Make sure your outgoing voicemail message doesn't make you sound like a party animal. If you sometimes use your outgoing message to give friends a heads-up as to your whereabout ("If this is Chaz, we're headed over to the Foundry, meet us there") don't do it during your job search.
12. Yes, we can get into your Facebook profile page if we want to, and seventy-some percent of employers do it, so don't leave your bikini/beer/bong photos up there while you're job-hunting. Or afterward.
13. Don't use a weird font in your resume that will show up as musical notes on someone else's monitor. Use a plain-vanilla font like Arial (11 pt.) that any computer can read.
14. If you're responding to an email address, check the email address to see if it looks like a person's name. If the email address is a person's name, don't address your cover letter "Dear HIring Manager" or (gack!) "To Whom it May Concern." If the email address is amy.jenkins@acmeproducts.com, begin your letter "Dear Amy" or "Dear Ms. Jenkins."
15. Don't, don't, don't send an email message that says "To learn more about me, click here" with your blog or personal website url. That is ultra-tacky and so 1997. Write a proper cover letter, instead.
16. Be personable and conversational in your letter, but don't be cutesy. "Stop! your search for the perfect candidate is over" was trite in 1990 ( I confess I'd been screening resumes for awhile, even then). Resist the temptation.
17. Don't say in your letter "I am perfect for the job" and then leave us wondering "Why?" Be specific. If you've had experience in similar jobs, spell it out. Screeners want to see your mind working, not boilerplate platitudes like "The job sounds exciting." Which aspect of it sounds exciting? We want to know.
18. Don't provide reference-givers who aren't reachable or won't remember you.  (It happens, shockingly often.) Check in with your references every single time you hand out their names and contact info.
19. Outlook has a spell check function. Hit F7 to check it out. If you don't want to use the spell check in Outlook, compose your email message in Word and spell-check it there. Misspellings and typos are going to happen, but more than one or two will get you tossed out of the selection process.
20. Don't say anything bad about  a former employer at any point in the selection process, and don't take it for granted that you'll be able to avoid doing that if you're not focused on it. Sometimes, in the process of extolling our virtues, we slip into "You should have seen the mess the department was in when I got there," and that sort of thing doesn't sit well with employers (who are likely to be thinking, "Will s/he be talking about me this way, some day in the future?").

Don't, above all, forget to send a post-interview thank-you card or email message. That's a must, even in etiquette-lax 2009. If nothing on our "To Don't" list sounds like you, bravo! You're in great shape to tackle the job market. Go get 'em!

Liz Ryan is a career consultant who helps smart people get good jobs using non-traditional job-search techniques. Liz is a former Fortune 500 HR VP and one of the country's most widely-read and well-respected workplace experts. She's the Networking Expert for Yahoo! Hot Jobs, the Workplace Expert for Business Week Online, a commentator for CNN and BBC Radio and a blogger at the Huffington Post as well as a career advice expert for Glassdoor.com. Liz lives in Boulder, Colorado with her husband and kids, and sings opera and musical theater when she's not advising job-seekers, working people, HR leaders, entrepreneurs and corporate leaders. Liz is a sought-after keynote speaker on HR, leadership, social-media and entrepreneurial topics, and leads job-search and career-development workshops as well as consulting with job-seekers individually. Visit Liz's website, Ask Liz Ryan, join her 25,000-member online community, or reach Liz here.