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Are job-seekers marketing themselves wrongly?

Posted on December 23rd, 2011 Read time: 1 minutes

January is a fresh start for both workers and employers. New budgets begin, hiring freezes end and the unemployed may see some new opportunities for full-time or temporary work.

However, these people are likely to remain jobless if they commit three cardinal sins listed by Business Insider.

The first is posting the wrong dates on a resume. This misstep confuses the interviewer and makes the interviewee seem disorganized. Furthermore, if dates are missing altogether on a resume, it'll likely end up in the trash bin.

Next, some unemployed people tend to delve into sob stories as to why they're out of work. While these issues may be important to the applicant, the interviewer is not interested in why the person is not working, but rather what he or she will bring to the company if hired. Some job applicants fear that if they were fired from a previous position, they become unhireable. U.S. News discounts this, because many potential employers won't realize the person was fired just by looking at a resume. If the topic does come up, be sure to handle it diplomatically.

Lastly, Business Insider cautions against providing vague answers. Doing this shows a lack of ingenuity and usually provides the interviewer with information he or she could've figured out regardless.

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