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In reality no such market exists. It is a highly decentralized, fragmented, and chaotic job market where job vacancy infor­mation is at best incomplete, skewed, and unrepresentative of available job opportunities at any particular moment. Classified ads, agencies, and personnel offices tend to list low paying yet highly competitive jobs. Most of the best jobs--high level, excellent pay, least competitive--are neither listed nor adver­tised; they are uncovered through word-of-mouth. When seek­ing employment, your most fruitful strategy will be to conduct research and informational interviews on what is called the "hidden job market."

 

The second assumption deals with how you should relate to this job market:

 

Assumption #2: You should try to alter your goals and abilities so they will better fit into existing vacancies rather than find a job directly related to your strengths.

 

This may be a formula for future job unhappiness. If you want to find a job fit for you rather than try to fit yourself into a job, you must use another job search strategy based upon a different set of assumptions regarding how you should relate your goals and abilities to the world of work.

 

MYTH 2:         A good resume and cover letter will get me a job.

 

REALITY:

 

Resumes and letters do not get jobs--they advertise you for interviews. Your resume and letters are marketing tools de­signed to communicate your qualifications to em­ployers. From the perspective of employers, resumes and letters are used to screen candidates --who are basically strangers to employers for interviews. Few people ever get hired on the basis of their resume and letters. In fact, over 95% of employers indicate they hire on the basis of a per­sonal interview. If you believe your cleverly crafted resume and letters have some magical quality, you may end up engaging in a whole series of useless--and embarrassing--resume and letter writing activities.

 

MYTH 3:

 

The candidate with the best education, skills, and experi­ence will get the job.

 

REALITY:

 

Employers hire individuals for many different reasons. Edu­cation, skills, and experience--major information categories appearing on your resume--are only a few of several hiring criteria. Surprising to some candidates, these criteria may not be the most important in the eyes of many employers. If, for example, employers only hired on the basis of education, skills, and experience, they would not need to interview candidates. Such static and redundant information is available in applica­tions and resumes. Employers interview because they want to see a warm body--how you look and interact with them and how you will fit into their organization. They can get other information from additional sources. Indeed, the most impor­tant reason for hiring you is that the employer "likes" you. How "likes" is defined will vary from one employer and organi­zation to another. In some cases the employer "likes" you because of your educational background, demonstrated skills, and experience. In other cases the employer "likes" you because of your style and personality as well as a gut feeling that you are the right person for the job. The employer will determine or confirm these feelings in the ac­tual job interview. So be prepared in the interview to communicate a great deal of information about yourself other than what the employer already knows--your education, skills, and experience.

 

MYTH 4:

 

You can plan all you want, but getting a job is really a function of good luck.

 

REALITY:

 

Luck is a function of being in the right place at the right time to take advantage of opportunities that come your way. But how do you plan your luck? The best way to have luck come your way is to plan to be in many different places at many dif­ferent times. You can do this by putting together an excellent resume and marketing it within both the advertised and hidden job markets. If you are redundant, persistent, and tenacious--rather than aggressive, obnoxious, and a pest--in implementing your plans, luck may strike you many times!

 

Planning Resume Content

 

MYTH 5:

 

The best type of resume is one that outlines employment history by job titles, responsibilities, and inclusive employ­ment dates.

 

REALITY:

 

This is one type of resume which may or may not be good for you. It tends to be the traditional chronological or "obituary" resume. It's filled with historical "what" information--what work you did, in what organizations, over what period of time. This type of resume may tell employers little about what it is you can do for them. You should choose a resume for­mat that clearly communicates your major strengths--not your history--to employers in relation to your goals and skills as well as the em­ployer's needs. Your choices include variations of the chronological, functional, and com­bination resumes---each offering different advantages and disadvantages.