The 10 Biggest Job Search Lies

A lot of what you've been told by well-meaning family, friends, instructors and potential employers is bull.

In relation to looking for work, that is.

Sorry to break it to you.

So, in an effort to clear things up, let's take a look at the Top 10 Job Search Lies and see if we can find a few nuggets of truth:

1) "You should send out at least 20 (or 50 or 100) resumes every day." Well, sure - if you can afford reams of resume paper, ink cartridges, envelopes and postage! And if you can afford to waste time tossing mass quantities of your resume into the great slush pile in cyberspace! And if you don't care where it goes! And, of course, if you don't mind wasting your time! The smarter route? Sending fewer, targeted resumes to companies you've actually researched. Your return on invested time and/or money will be much higher.

2) "Resumes should only be one page." How this stone-age advice still manages to rear its Neanderthal head from the primordial muck is anyone's guess. The modern rule of thumb is: "Don't fear the second page, but you better have a darn good reason to go onto a third."

3) "Just find a job and stick with it." This advice is wrong on two counts: 1) just find a job; and 2) stick with it. Truth to be told, it's not that hard to find a low-paying job. But low-paying jobs don't typically pay the bills. And then to stick with it? To stick with a gig that doesn't pay much? The better course of action is to get a job, then either look for advancement in-house or a better job in a different company.

4) "You'll never work in this town again." The person who lobs this idle threat will (sooner or later) wind up canned. You will find work far easier than the blow hard who threatens your future income. Even the most powerful business people can't reach everywhere, after all.

5) "The best place to find a job is in the newspaper or online." Fewer and fewer jobs are being listed in newspapers. And most newspapers have agreements with job search sites like CareerBuilder, which supply them with job listings. Even so, several sources indicate that only 20% of all jobs are obtained online. The remaining 80% are found through networking.

6) "Nobody has time to waste networking - they should be looking for jobs!" Networking is looking for work. Since 80% of all jobs are found through networking, it makes sense to spend 80% of your time tapping and growing your network. It's not wasting time - it's investing time.

7) "Job hopping makes you look bad." Back in the day, if a job candidate had spent two years at one place, four years at another and three at yet another, s/he was looked down upon as a job hopper. Back then, employers may have questioned why that person couldn't keep a job. Now, however, there are layoffs, downsizing, plant closures and foreign outsourcing. Employers understand that. They also usually understand if there are a few jobs that only lasted a few months. After all, many people do contract work or freelance. Many employers now look down on those who have stayed in a job for too long - the job candidate might be seen as not ambitious.

8) "We'll call you next week with our decision." Most hiring managers, at some point, have uttered that sentence at the end of an interview. When job seekers don't hear anything within the time promised, they might get confused as to what their next course of action should be. They might get upset. They might over think the situation. A good rule of thumb is to call the first weekday after the promised week. This shows you're still interested, but also understand the HR person has a lot on his/her plate.

9) "We only take applications online." Many companies state they only want candidates to fill out their online applications and/or submit their resumes on the company website. What they won't tell you, however, is that you can work around that by networking your way into the company. By developing several key contacts within a target company, you can bypass the online process and get your resume into the hands of decision makers.

10) "Nobody's hiring." This is a defeatist attitude. Even in the toughest job markets, there are companies hiring. Even during the Great Depression there were companies hiring. There may not be a lot of hiring, but there is hiring. Job seekers just need to be more aggressive to nab the gigs available.

IN A NUTSHELL: You've been fed a lot of bull during your work search by well-meaning people. Hopefully, this list cleared some of that up.