On the fifty-first entry of Tristan's Tips, our amazing host Tristan Layfield calls out three mistakes we might be making while applying for jobs. Remember, there’s no one right way to land a job, but there are plenty of ways to make sure the process to land one is much more effective and efficient for us.

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TRANSCRIPT

Tristan: What’s going on, Living Corporate?! It’s Tristan of Layfield Resume Consulting, and I’m back again in collaboration with Living Corporate to bring you another career tip. This week let’s talk about 3 mistakes you might be making while searching for that new job.




New year, new job, right? Well…sort of. There are a couple of things that may be taking you out of the race before you even get started. So in order to make sure you have the most effective and efficient job search process in 2020, I want to call out 3 mistakes you might be making while applying for those jobs.




The first mistake is not tailoring your resume to the job you’re applying for. There are two main reasons this is so important. First, if you’re applying to jobs online over 70% of companies and organizations use Applicant Tracking Systems that scan your resume for keywords or phrases, amongst other things. If you’ve ever applied for a job and gotten a rejection pretty quickly or you feel like your resume has gone into a black hole, it’s probably because you didn’t make it past the applicant tracking software. The second reason this is important is that once your resume is in a recruiter or hiring manager’s hand studies show that they scan it for about 6 seconds to decide if they are going to actually read it or put it in the no pile. So it’s imperative that you give them the most relevant content in the shortest amount of time.




The second mistake you might be making is not copying and pasting your resume into the application when it asks for it. I know this is so annoying for almost everyone, but when it comes to that applicant tracking software, many of them parse your uploaded resume into a digital candidate profile. But certain formats, fonts, and sometimes even colors can cause both the scanning and parsing process to go wrong. By actually copying your resume into that box, this will ensure your information is scanned properly, even if there is an issue with your document. Don’t worry, the recruiter or hiring manager will still use the resume you uploaded if they want to review it or print it out.




The last mistake I’m going to discuss is not getting a referral. While applying online is fine and dandy, there is only about a 2% success rate when it comes to landing the interview and potentially the job. Almost 80% of recruiters agree that referrals are the best way to find a quality hire. And according to a Jobvite study, a referral, compared to just applying online, makes you 15 times more likely to be hired. So if a large portion of your job search process doesn’t include expanding your network with people who work at places where you want to work, you might be making this way more difficult on yourself.




Remember, there’s no one right way to land a job. But there are plenty of ways to make sure the process to land one is much more effective and efficient for you.




This tip was brought to you by Tristan of Layfield Resume Consulting. Check us out on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @LayfieldResume or connect with me, Tristan Layfield, on LinkedIn.