The 7 Habits of Highly Unsuccessful Job Seekers

1. Procrastinate

By procrastinating they become an easy prey for failure. Procrastinate means they keep on delaying doing what they need to do in order to get job. Before the final year exam, while other people start to write up their resumes, they refuse to follow suit.

“Can’t you see I’m busy? Final exam is just around the corner. How can I spend time doing a resume?”, they shouted while their fingers were busy pressing the Nintendo game console.

They also keep on saying how much they hate their job and that they need to find another job soon. The problem is, they have been saying that for the past 18 months. And until now they have not been doing anything. When their friends get the job much earlier then them, they responded with such a dramatic and shocking look, with their eyes doubled in size, followed by some dramatic background music theme. Look how dramatic the look is from the hamster below.

See if you are any different. Watch it and indulge yourself in self-pity.

2. Complain, complain and complain.

After convincing themselves that they have done enough work to find jobs, now it is time to start complaining. It is also time to find the scape goat. They write to the newspapers. They complain the government is not fair. They complain the employment market is too competitive. They complain the employers are being too choosy. They complain the salary offered is peanut.

So much for a complain that it sounds like unemployment has become an epidemic issue that has left many unemployed people in the country starved to death.

3. Think that they have make enough effort

After sending 3 job application to 3 different companies, they think they have done enough. Surely one of them will call them for interview. Time to get laid. Time to relax. Why not, since they just bought 10 latest X-Box games. So give me a break.

The successful ones never stop. Finding jobs become an unpaid full time job for them. They keep on searching for job opportunities around, for as many as their hands can get. When they get a good job with a good company and good compensation, the unsuccessful one will say, “Man, he is lucky.”

It’s not luck. It’s hard work.

4. Not doing the the right things

The law of probability says that if we continuously repeat the process that has probability to produce success, sooner or later we will achieve it! The closer you’re with the right process, the closer you are with the success. The unsuccessful job seekers do not plan, execute, analyze results, improve and execute again. Their job search is without purpose. You must be familiar with the saying, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

Doing the right thing means stop procrastinating. Doing the right thing means stop complaining. Doing the right thing means stop being complacent. Doing the right thing means start working towards your goal.

Doing the right thing means you start writing your resume. It means you start writing a personalized cover letter. It means you start registering with job and recruitment agencies. It means taking this advice seriously.

5. Not doing things right

You see the difference? Even if they are doing the right things, there’s a little point if they are wrongly done. There’s no definite plan and strategy in your job search. You know WHAT you should do, but you don’t know HOW to do it. If you see my posting about the Mara job vacancy, you have another compelling reason why people find it difficult to land a job. They kept on ‘writing job application’ even though some friends have nicely told them that their methodology is somewhat erratic.

Think logic. What makes them think that by writing a comment in a blog entry will grant them job interview? What will the employers think if I go and tell them this,

“Hey [fill in the blank], there are about 30 people who are interested to work with you, but they have instead chosen to send the application to me. I have a bunch of their applications in my place. Would you come down to my place and see their applications?”

Here’s another question, when you go to someone’s house, do you ask the neighbor to tell the house owner that you’re outside and ask him to come and greet you? Thank you for your honest answer.

Some of them even fail to comprehend the value of confidentiality by putting their phone numbers in. While the purpose of them to get a job may get a small degree of empathy, their effort is left with much to be desired.

When you send too many applications but getting no interview invitation, then something is wrong. Something is not right with your resume or your method of application. When you have gone to too many interviews but with no job offer, then something is not right with your interview skills. Maybe you sense it, but your ignorance overpowers you. So you choose not to get anyone’s help. You are a grown up. You can solve your own problem.

6. Do not take effort to improve themselves.

There is little or no effort made to always improve themselves. They don’t take initiative to talk with the experienced people who have been hiring for their organization to learn about the criteria that they are looking for in a job candidate. They don’t learn how to make their resume better. They don’t spend time analyzing and evaluate their interview skills. No time is spend to sharpen their communication, presentation and interpersonal skills. They never take effort to develop that “winning edge” to increase their chances of landing a job.

Here’s a ‘winning edge’ scenario to ponder. You and one other candidate are short listed for final round of interview for a Senior Analyst position with IBM. Both of you have excellent academic results and creditable employment history. In the end, the other guy gets it and is offered the job at IBM. He gets 100% of the salary, 100% of the benefits and 100% the bonus. What do you get? Zilch. Zero. Nada. Yilek. So the ratio of what he gets compared to you is 100:0, and that is equivalent to an infinite number.

Does this mean that the other guy is better than you by infinite times? No!

Most likely he answered one of the questions slightly better than you. This is the concept of the winning edge, which states that small differences in knowledge and ability can lead to massive differences in the final result.

7. They’re unsure what they want.

This is perhaps the biggest problem at all. How can they achieve things when they don’t know where they’re going? The starting point of a success lies at the known end of it. What if you don’t know the end? There’s no beginning.

For centuries people were telling the success story of Christopher Columbus finding the new land called America. But little do they know that Columbus himself considered his voyage a failure. When he got there, he didn’t know where he was. After coming back to England, he told the Queen he didn’t know where he had been. It took long after his death for people to know that Columbus was the one who discovered America.

Having a definite sense of purpose and goal enables you to set better priorities, make better decisions and do more things that will help you achieve your goal. If you’re applying for 17 different positions with 17 different companies, that tells you that you are not sure what you want to do. You’re not focused on what you want. Otherwise, why do you apply for Product Engineer job and at the same time applying for Journalist, Marketing Executive, Procurement Officer and Aircraft Pilot positions!

Other posts you may want to read:

1. 7 Habits of Highly Unsuccessful Employees
2. Cover Letter Sample for Fresh Graduate
3. How to Write a Good Resume
4. Average Graduate Gets a Job Before Graduation
5. Stay in a Job For a Long Time
6. The “Employer’s Block” – Why Employer Rejected My Resume
7. Try Harder Is Not The Best Advice
8. Application Letter Sample for Internship

Author's bio: Zul is the founder and principal contributor for the SKOR Career blog. He is the author of two books, The Malaysian Job Seeker's Dilemma and Buat Duit Tanpa Kerja Makan Gaji (How to Make Money Without a Job), available in major book stores nationwide. You can reach him at zulkiflimusa[at]gmail.com.