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4 Remedies to Fix Bad Career Advice by Mark Anthony Dyson
Nothing is worse than bad career advice. It looks like sour advice and tastes like leather, but it’s terrible career advice. If advice received from friends and family sounds like a trick or gimmick, although helpful at times, it cannot be the pattern of your job search. Now and then, an act of boldness will stand out in a deluge of applicants, as long as the cost is minimal in the big picture.
Bad advice is often broad and vague, but they swear by it. Unfortunately, they’ve created echo chambers of people who will validate their claims.
Good advice comes from anyone, too. Career professionals and entrepreneurs don’t own the block on helpful advice.
The best advice has context and is customized to a specific person or people. If you see how our job market is splintered, there are people in tech saying the sky is falling and everyone else saying it’s a hot job market.
But I digress. More on this later.
Context. You, the advice taker, will need to perpetually contextualize career advice.
Bad can always be modified and customized to the situation. People are still offering this career advice in 2022. The fix is pretty 2011.
These are my suggestions to remedy outdated advice:
1. “It’s all about perception, so you are not lying.”
Good hiring managers will sniff out illusions, especially if the resume lacks plausible claims about the experience. If your resume sounds more like a job description, then perception becomes a delusion. The Fix: Stick with the facts. The more measures and metrics a resume offers, the more you stand out.
2. “Just show up! You don’t need a resume!”
Yes, anyone can get an interview without a resume, but showing up without one is a mistake. Do everything you can to show diligence throughout the hiring process. The Fix: It never hurts to have your resume in tow or easily accessible at all times. Don’t treat it like a flyer. Instead, treat it more like a letter of intent.
3. “Just to need to spend some time on Indeed and apply to a bunch of jobs.”
Unemployment would be less than 1% of job search was that easy. The Fix: Try everything! Start networking and conduct informational interviews with the right strategy. You should nurture and foster relationships so you’ll learn to talk to the right people. Isn’t that the goal? It takes time, thought, and patience.
4. Any statement that anyone starts, “All you have to do…”
The Fix: You have my permission to turn their volume down or turn your volume up. You can also turn them off if you can do so without violence. Anyone who follows advice from “All you have to do…” deserves the results it brings (hint: it’s usually disappointing). Feel free to vet all advice you hear, see, or involuntarily ask for.
I’m sure you can think of more bad advice you should ignore. Let me know if you do.
About Mark Anthony Dyson
I am the "The Voice of Job Seekers!" I offer compassionate career and job search advice as I hack and re-imagine the job search process. You need to be "the prescription to an employer's job description." You must be solution-oriented and work in positions in companies where you are the remedy. Your job search must be a lifestyle, and your career must be in front of you constantly. You can no longer shed your aspirations at the change seasons. There are strengths you have that need constant use and development. Be sure you sign up to download my E-Book, "421 Modern Job Search Tips 2021!" You can find my career advice and work in media outlets such as Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, Glassdoor, and many other outlets.