Job search tips you should ditch immediately

What if I told you that most career and job search advice you find online is misleading and that you don't need to follow it?

In fact, many popular tips are either based on outdated ideas or come from people who have never done real hiring, so those tips might do more harm than good.

These are the advice you should remove from your job searching arsenal asap.

1. Reaching out to hiring managers on LinkedIn.

While reaching out to hiring managers on LinkedIn may seem like a proactive strategy, consider this: first, it's relatively easy to identify the hiring manager if you're applying for a role in a startup, but with larger organizations, you could easily miss the mark.

Second, many hiring managers don't check LinkedIn frequently, which means you could be left waiting for days or even weeks without a response, potentially missing out on the application window. And lastly, if you think this approach will allow you to bypass recruiters altogether, I’m sorry to burst your bubble—99% of the time, the hiring manager will end up passing your resume to a company recruiter, which will bring you to the starting point of the process anyways.

2. Thank you notes post interview

This may come as a surprise since it's such a common advice, but here’s the reality: sending a thank-you note won't guarantee you a job or make you stand our, contrary to popular belief, but what is worse - some hiring managers view it as pushy and become annoyed. After a decade in hiring, I can tell you that when it comes to choosing between two equally qualified candidates, a thank-you note is the last thing that influences the decision. The same goes for not sending one; what truly matters are your skills and how you present yourself during the interview. An email doesn’t land you the job—it may just irritate a hiring manager by adding additional pressure on them to reply.

3. Asking “do you have any reservations about my candidacy”

It makes my stomach turn when I hear candidates ask this question during a job interview. Let me give you two solid reasons why you should steer clear of it. First, many companies have a "no feedback policy," which means recruiters or hiring managers can't provide any substantial feedback beyond the typical response: "We appreciate your time and interest, but we’ve decided to move forward with another candidate." Second—this is important to consider—what impression do you want to leave with the hiring manager after the interview? Would you rather they focus on your outstanding skills and motivation, or dwell on "reservations they have about your candidacy"? No-go for me.

4. Avoiding recruiter at all cost

Well, just like any field, there are good, bad, and ugly professionals in every role—and that includes recruiters.

I could write an entire article full of stories about candidates pulling their applications after a poor experience with a recruiter. Yet, many of my HR colleagues are genuinely caring, professional, and incredibly smart individuals.

Believe it or not, you and the recruiter both share the same goal: filling the job. They can be a valuable partner by offering insights into the role, the hiring process, compensation, and the interview style of the hiring manager. Also, companies have hiring processes in place for a reason. In most cases, you’ll still need to collaborate with a recruiter whether you like it or not.

5. Developing personal brand and network

Don’t get me wrong here - I’m all for working on your personal brand and moreover - I know for fact that those who have a strong personal brand and a wide network wouldn’t be on a job market for long if they even appear on it. There is many tips around personal brand that prompt people starting from creating content or digital products, to using various marketing tools to promote themselves. While these tips are valid, an important nuance often gets missed: in order to stand out with your content or products, they should be genuinely authentic and prove your expertise. What we see instead is people abusing ChatGPT and overloading internet with cardboard content (sometimes not even proofread), which is simply useless.

6. Dodging salary questions or asking about the range

I will probably get a lot of hate for that, but while wanting good comp is completely understandable, by avoiding the comp questions, you might be sending a signal to the recruiter and HM that you either do not have the self-awareness and don’t know your worth on the job market. Even if you get an answer from a recruiter, it will never be the real range. You won’t believe it, but it also may signal that you are overly financially focused, and might leave for the better opportunity as soon as it appears on the horizon. You should also know that some HMs ask recruiters to mark any candidate that does not answer the question and instead tries to reverse it. There are much better ways of answering this one.

7. Not spending time to develop great and genuine questions post-interview

Your interview questions might either help you get the role or get you out. My main message as someone who has been working in HR for a decade is that the opportunity to ask questions on a job interview is your chance to prove and showcase your deep understanding of the role and what it entails, the challenges the company is facing, as well as demonstrate confidence in your knowledge.

That said, don’t blow it off by asking stupid “company culture”, “day to day in the role”, “next steps in the interview process” or - God forbid - “reservations about my candidacy” questions. A few working tips on developing smart interview questions are: study the company in and out and you will have questions along the way; imagine you had a friend who’s currently working for this organization - what would you ask them? (remove all questions on working conditions and environment though); try to be engaged in the conversation while interviewing!

Great questions could be around company goals and strategy, recent changes, how they stand vs the latest market trends, their North Star metric (Google this if you don't know it!)

You should view the interview as a two way street, be curious, ask clarification questions, confirm your understanding, be present! You got this :)