Myth 1: The perfect resume guarantees a callback
A great resume will greatly improve your chances of getting into the interviewing process. However, many other applicants may have equally great or even better resumes, especially in a competitive job market. Still, submitting a highly targeted, hyper-correct (grammar, spelling, etc.), and perfectly formatted resume is essential.
Myth 2: You don’t need to tailor your resume and cover letter for each application
Customizing your resume and cover letter for the specific job and company is crucial. Firstly, there may be hundreds or even thousands of applications for an attractive open position in a competitive job market. While ATSs don’t automatically disqualify generic resumes, they do score applications using keywords in the resume, and recruiters, especially in companies that use robust ATSs, when faced with too many applicants, will save time by typically only looking at the high-scoring applications. Secondly, showing that you have researched the company and understand how your skills fit their needs makes a strong impression on the hiring managers focused on identifying applicants with specific qualifications and experiences.
Myth 3: Applying to a lot of jobs will increase your chances
This one is tricky. While it’s true that quality trumps quantity in the job search process, it’s also true that submitting more high-quality applications is better than applying to fewer, all things other things being equal. High quality is the key. The problem is that submitting a larger volume of applications often meant spending less time on each application, resulting in lower quality. You can now use a product like Jobalope to make submitting high-quality, targeted, and hyper-correct resumes much more efficient.
Myth 4: You only need to make cold applications or only need to network and get referrals
In a tough job market, you need to do both. Cold applications get you more times at bat. Reaching out to your professional network, attending industry events, and connecting with alumni from your school will yield more referrals to get your resume to the top of the stack more often.
Myth 5: You don’t need to provide a cover letter when the option is offered
Cover letters are usually optional, and although many recruiters don’t read them, you should still provide one and tailor it to the job. Firstly it’s an opportunity to provide more information about why you’re the best person for the job, so why not take advantage of it? Secondly, even if it doesn’t get read, that doesn’t mean recruiters and hiring managers don’t have a preference for applicants that showed an effort to provide one.
