Staying positive

I've seen quite a few articles of late about staying positive in your job search it sort of follows on from my last blog post of remaining positive when you've been made redundant. This post will focus more on some other aspects of remaining stoic and constant when you're job hunting, especially if you're currently unemployed.
These pointers count whether your a graduate who has recently left uni or someone who has been working for many years.

1 - Don't be complacent in your efforts. It really does help to set daily goals, to be proactive and to maintain a positive outlook. Don't just sit and wait for something, if you put the effort in, it will happen, it might not happen as quickly as you want it to but it will happen. The following pointers reiterate this but if you want the best out of something you have to put your best in, it's that simple really. Don't expect miracles to happen, work hard, play hard, learn to dance in the rain and other motivational musings!!

2 - Don't machine gun applications, its obvious and it looks unprofessional. What do I mean by this? When you're searching for a job, say you're on Reed.co.uk and you see a role that looks like it matches some of your skills but not all, so you think - sod it, I'll give it a go - that's fine and sometimes if enough skills align then it could be a good thing, but if you're just hammering out CVs to anything and everything it will be obvious, you probably won't be doing a cover note, you probably won't be tailoring your CV, you probably won't be checking your accuracy in terms of skill match and you probably won't be reading the job specs thoroughly. It will be 100% obvious because of these points that you are just throwing your CV out there and that is highly off putting to a hiring manager or recruiter. Why should they take the time with you if you can't take the time with them?

3 - Remain accurate - follows on from above really. If you're sending out a lot of applications and you're doing it right, make sure your contact is the right one for the right job, your cover note is addressed to the right company, and the job title is the right one. If a candidate can't take the time to check these minor details I can tell you now as a recruiter, it is SO off-putting and is again likely to lead to you ending up in the no pile.

4 - Don't lie!
I was talking to a colleague today about a couple of candidates who had lied to get a foot in the door. Both had got to offer stage before they came clean and now both offers weren't going ahead and the candidate's reputation was in tatters.
Even after all these years in recruitment I'm still baffled as to why people lie when applying to a job. These particular people had lied about their degrees. Each had said they were qualified in an area that they weren't, we understood their desperation to get a permanent job as they'd both been out of work for sometime but we would now never touch them with a barge pole - its that simple, how could we possibly trust them in our business when they've lied before they've even got here?
Lying about anything on your CV is just a straight no. Embellish, maybe, if you can pull the skill off you have embellished but outright lie? No way.

The following links are the recent articles I've seen. Come and have a browse on our Facebook page www.facebook,com/cvukwriterltd

http://www.careerealism.com/happy-job-seekers-habits/

http://www.brazencareerist.com/blog/2015/08/04/feeling-down-5-ways-to-stay-healthy-while-looking-for-a-new-job/

Not quite job related but still relevant - http://tinybuddha.com/blog/how-to-keep-your-spirits-up-even-if-youre-bombarded-with-negativity-all-day/