Things Crappy Job Search Coaches Say

 

“It’s a full time job to look for a job!”

“Job searching is hard…I have amassed all the information I collected and started a job search coaching business, because I want to help people.” (Mind you, they never did find a job themselves…just created a resume writing / job search business after being unemployed for a year.)

“Make sure you write your resume to be digested properly by the Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to get an interview…” (yet they wouldn’t know what an ATS looks like if it hit them like a line drive headed straight to their face)

#ThingsCrappyJobSearchCoachesSay

Nothing pisses me off more than people who cannot find jobs or create opportunity for themselves trying to teach other people to do what they could not do…and charge money for it.

Let’s address each of these pet peeve quotes made by Crappy Job Search Coaches…This is going to be a fun #lisarant

#1 “It’s a full time job to look for a job!”

I’m sorry, but here’s the TRUTH.

Looking for a job should be your full time job…when you are unemployed!

But when you are employed, and you are responsible for mobilizing a staff, accountable for quarterly goals, have a mortgage to pay, kids activities to go to after work and homework to help with on top of your 50+ hour a week job…

You have limited time.

Adding this new “full-time job” seems like a cruel joke. Until you realize the formerly-unemployed and/or never-worked-in-an-executive-corporate-job job search coach is not kidding.

Here is the deal…they are not kidding and they are wrong.

And it pisses me off because it sets executive job seekers up with unrealistic and incorrect expectations on how to look for a job when you are working.

Yes, you have to prioritize yourself and carve out time for yourself to execute a successful job search.

But successfully finding an executive level job (and any job, actually) is about working smart…and not necessarily hard.

SCENARIO A: Spend 20 hours to write your resume for the applicant tracking system to submit to 20 jobs online? Working hard…not working smart.

SCENARIO B: Spend 5 hours reaching out to 20 networking contacts to have conversations that lead you to 2 informational interviews?  Working smart and not necessarily as hard.

I would take B any day of the week…whether I was working or unemployed.

Crappy Job Search Coaches have no idea how to work smart…if they did, they would have found a job in the first place.

Which leads us to #2 – “Job searching is hard…I have amassed all the information I collected and started a job search coaching business, because I want to help people.”

Give me a break.

Would you hire a weight loss coach who just came from Burger King eating a Whopper and looks morbidly obese?

Would you hire a financial advisor who went bankrupt and does not seem to have learned their lesson?

Would you go to a hairdresser whose has a Bon Jovi-style feathered hairdo from 1980s?

No?

So why would you hire a job search coach who has terribly dated online marketing AND shows on their LinkedIn Profile that they were laid off from a job for an extended period of time, so then they decide to open a job search coaching business?

Now let me be clear…I am not harshing on people who made bad choices in their early life regarding health, finances, and job loss, learned from those mistakes, created a history of success from what they learned and set up a business coaching people based on that successful turnaround experience. The difference between these coaches and the crappy coaches are they had SUCCESS eventually, they have EXPERIENCE in how to turn things around and can now share that expertise.

I am talking about the people who had no success implementing all the information they learned…but now feel they should share the information with others for a fee.

These people need to go away.

When you hire someone, do you want more information in our information-glutted world or do you want someone who can help you APPLY it successfully to YOUR situation in a custom manner?

Hire coaches who practice what they preach….

Helping people is noble, but when the advice is wrong and/or the advice is not good enough to be used as toilet paper, then the good intentions have no weight.

Crappy Job Search Coaches spew job search platitudes and cannot give you advice custom to your situation. Period.  Do your homework on this….

#3 “Make sure you write your resume to be digested properly by the Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to get an interview…”

The year 2002 called and they want their hiring advice back….

Pul-eeze.  I am so sick of hearing this fear-driven piece of advice.

“Master the big-bad ATS system and you will find a job…and I, the crappy job search coach, will help you do that!”

When you look at their background…they never recruited. They never worked in a senior corporate role.  They hardly hired people—and if they did, it was while working at a small company that probably never used an ATS since it was cost-prohibitive.

Yet now they are writing ATS friendly resumes.

If these crappy job search coaches knew what they were talking about, the would realize most hires (around 70%) happen through employee referrals, social media connections and personal contacts. When hiring managers and recruiters cannot find the talent they need from these venues, then they post the ad or hire a third party recruiter to help, if the budget allows.

Good job search coaches teach clients tactics to get hired by the 70% of ways hires are made…

You would not hire a financial planner who coached you on what lottery numbers to pick to land your retirement funds, right?

So don’t hire a resume writer who focuses mainly on having an ATS friendly resume as their magic elixir to finding a job—it did not work for them. It won’t work for you.

On that note, if you want to learn actions to take that will help you stop job searching & start job landing, join me for my next No-Cost training session, “6 Deadly Job Search Mistakes Preventing You from Landing a Job“.

Click the link for more details and to Register Now.

 

Be Well,

Lisa