5 Pieces of Job Searching Advice You Should Ignore

5 Pieces of Job Searching Advice You Should Ignore5 Pieces of Job Searching Advice You Should Ignore Between parents, friends, colleagues, and common wisdom, theres no shortage of sources you can get advice from when youre applying to jobs. The problem is, however, that leid all of that advice is good advice . While our friends and family often mean well, the labor market changes rapidly enough that one job hunting best practice is no longer relevant a couple years later. And sometimes, advice-givers are just plain misinformed - I once had an acquaintance tell me that I shouldnt even consider applying to a particular job without a graduate degree , which a recruiter for the position later confirmed would have been completely unnecessary.So if youre really looking for tips that can help you get your foot in the door at a new job, dont rely too much on well-meaning friends and family - leave it to the experts . J.T. ODonnell, Founder & CEO of career advice site Work It Daily , shared some of the fruchtwein common misconceptions amongst job seekers , and what the truth of the matter really is.Once upon a time, employees were expected to stay at their companies for years on end lest they risk looking flakey or unambitious. But today, the rules have changed. Millennials change jobs an average of four times in the decade after graduating from college, about double the rate of Gen Xers. And this happens for good reason - new jobs tend to be the quickest way to advance in title and salary. Besides, if youre truly unhappy in your current position, you shouldnt force yourself to stay - life is too short to be miserable at work. I still hear parents saying that you need to stay at least three years to earn credibility. But no, you dont - not if its not working for you, ODonnell shares. You need to go find your cadence and your stride and if its not happening at your current company, youre not helping them. Youve got to find your own thing. Now, thats not to say that you should necessarily quit a job youre unhappy at without anything else lined up first. But if the main thing holding you back from exploring other opportunities is that you havent been there long enough, dont worry. If youre the right fit for the job, recruiters arent likely to write you off based solely on your previous tenure.You may have to apply to more than one company before you find the perfect fit, but that doesnt mean that more applications directly translates into more opportunities. When it comes to applying to jobs, the key to success is working smarter, not harder . So rather than sending out as many applications as humanly possible, its better to get strategic and only apply to the companies that you feel are a great fit for your interests and experience. So how exactly can you identify those companies?One of the things we have job seekers do is create a list of 10 companies that you absolutely love - the product, the service, whateve r it is they do, you absolutely love it. Dont get hung up on whether youd ever work for them or not, dont get hung up that theyre not in your backyard. Just ten companies you love. Then ask yourself, Whats similar about these 10 companies? ODonnell says.From there, patterns will emerge, whether thats companies with great customer service, a culture of neuheit , a commitment to helping the less fortunate, or whatever matters most to you. It gets a lot easier to find employers once you know what those are. And the beautiful part about going to Glassdoor is it tells me similar companies, ODonnell adds.Dont worry - despite what you may have heard, submitting a resume thats more than one page doesnt mean that recruiters will automatically gloss over it. The reality is that you can go to two pages as long as you create white space . When I see a one-pager but theyve got half-inch margins, nine-point font, and theyve tried to stuff everything on the page, its awful. So Id rather see y ou go to two pages as long as youve really created that white space since its easier for me to read, ODonnell explains.However, its a good rule of thumb to err on the side of concision. Under 15 years of experiences is a two pager, in the rare instance youve had a killer career of 15+ years is a three pager. The exception to that is usually people in academia or science have a lot of papers and things that they have to cite and that can take up some bulk but aside from that no more than two, she adds. In cover letters , people tell job seekers to basically summarize whats in their resume, ODonnell says. But using your cover letter simply as a way to repurpose what youve already laid out is a waste of your time. Im not going to read your cover letter if I know that everything in it is whats in the resume, ODonnell shares.Beyond being redundant, using your cover letter as a resume summary means you miss out on demonstrating passion and culture fit for the company and role in pa rticular.The cover letter is your opportunity to tell me how you feel connected to me as a company - I want you to tell me how you came to learn that what we do is different, special, valuable, important . The resume will speak for itself, ODonnell says. This is especially important if youre still relatively early on in your career.If you dont have anything where you can say, Check out my incredible track record, what you do have is that emotional connection. And thats what every company is looking for. Theyre looking for your passion for them, ODonnell shares. They know theyre going to have to train you, so tell them about how you learned that the medical devices they make saved your grandmothers life, or how being in financial planning is what helped your parents pay for your college - whatever the story is that connects you, thats what you tell those employers.Its natural to want to avoid highlighting the parts of your application that arent so strong, but addressing issue s head-on is a good way to assuage any doubts that a potential employer might have. And while you dont want to necessarily make it front and center on your resume, recruiters and hiring managers will respect an honest, thoughtful answer if they inquire about why you took a break from the working world .What we teach people to do is answer that question using the experience, learn, and grow model - what did I experience, what did I learn from that situation, and how did I grow. So if I didnt do an internship and I goofed off for the summer and they ask me what happened, my answer would be That was a really great question. At the time, I had the summer off and I opted to not pursue an internship. What I learned from that experience is that I wasted an opportunity to really get some valuable experience for my career, and what Ive learned is Ill never do that again. Thats exactly what an employer wants to hear, ODonnell says.On the other hand, if youve had a meaningful life event th ats gotten in the way of your work - whether positive or negative - you shouldnt be afraid to proactively bring it up. If you were out of work because you took your sabbatical and traveled around the world that would be noteworthy. If you stayed home and cared for an ailing relative or parent who passed, you may want to say you were a primary caregiver, ODonnell advises.