Are These Positive-Sounding Traits Actually Sabotaging Your Job Search?
It is always a good idea to know your best qualities and traits, especially when it comes to applying and interviewing for jobs. However, there are some traits and job search habits that can actually sabotage your career success. Here are a few to be mindful of.
Always exploring your options:
Gathering a lot of information can help make decisions. But someone who is an over-thinker can sabotage the process instead of supporting it. Too much information shifts your emphasis to negative thinking. When you’re an over-thinker, you feel a need to look at every aspect and gather all the information you think you may need. But what you’re doing is over-focusing and creating self-doubt. You’re stripping yourself of confidence and forcing yourself to keep researching until you reach certainty, when that may never come. Overthinking and always keeping options open also robs you of a job you may overlook due to constantly looking elsewhere for a “better option,” and may turn potential employers off from hiring you.
Same resume, different job:
A potential roadblock to landing a job is using a single resume for all your job applications. You may think that you’re being time-efficient and racking up “applications.” However, candidates applying with the same resume repeatedly, without looking closely enough to the job description to make sure their resume matches, risk not getting called for an interview.
Being good at “control”:
Staying in control and never being caught off guard sounds like someone who is good at preparation. But if always being in the driver’s seat is a focus, you can easily turn into a control freak. You may see being in control as always being prepared, but it can also lead to becoming fearful of situations when not in control. As a result, you limit exposure and engagement in social and work life. It can also be seen as someone who doesn’t work well with others and may turn off employers or managers from hiring you for leadership positions.
Always wanting to excel:
It’s not a bad trait to want to do something perfectly. But striving for perfection can lead to becoming a perfectionist. The perfectionist is always seeking praise for doing something without a single flaw, but the problem is that perfection is rarely achieved in any environment. No matter what you do, you can always find ways to make something better. Striving for perfection creates an impossible standard and a self-critical outlook. It’s an all-or-nothing behavior that can lead to sabotaging others as well as your own career goals. It also shows employers that you are inflexible to others’ opinions on tackling a problem and not open-minded.
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