Building More Effective Relationships for a Successful Job Search: Six Pitfalls to Avoid

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There are two common comments that students and clients will commonly present to me in a first meeting about a job search, and these comments will immediately let me know what’s wrong. The first is “I’ve sent out at least 1,000 resumes, and am not getting any interviews.” Of course, that one’s easy to explain. The job seeker is depending on non-targeted, passive search methodology which simply won’t work 99% of the time. Success here is equivalent to incredible good luck with very low odds.

The second, and the topic for this piece, is “I’ve met with at least 40 people so far armenia whatsapp phone number in trying to build an effective network, and it’s not working. I feel like I’m spinning wheels.” Or, “I’ve met with a bunch of people, and have really enjoyed it – but nothing’s happening.”

I’ve learned that there can be at least six possible reasons why the networking might not be working.


1) Not enough discipline and consistency.
Are you approaching your search in high-activity blasts or are you moving it along with a consistent pace? If you’re working full-time, then that means that you should aim for at least one live meeting a week, and should do something job-search related every day of the workweek, even if it means only 15-20 minutes daily. That would include research, record-keeping (essential), email writing, following up.

If you’re not working full-time, your goal should be 4-5 meetings a week, with every other aspect mentioned above amped up significantly. Job search is a full-time job.

Time off is ok for mental health during what is always a difficult effort, but not for long periods, i.e., the period between Thanksgiving and New Years Day or summer. A loss of momentum will make the search much longer overall, and any good relationships that have been started will lose impact. Trying to restart an interrupted search is difficult and frequently demoralizing. Keep it going as part of a regular, structured schedule.