People miss out on getting job interviews (and ultimately jobs) for many reasons.

We’ve already spoken about why you didn’t get an interview and why you didn’t get a job you were interested in here and also here.

Working in recruitment has shown me an interesting side of human nature…people often complain about not getting an interview and/or not getting a job and will specifically complain about how they were “a perfect fit” for the job and use this as a justification as to why they should have been hired.

Interestingly, I don’t know of any of these job searchers who can tell me about any of the other candidates who were interviewed for the same job or of the person who was ultimately hired…and yet they confidently declare that they were the “perfect” candidate for the job.

Notwithstanding the fact that they are slightly biased in that they clearly favor themselves and their experience and skills over the other candidates, candidates who as I just mentioned, they know nothing about.

The point is that people make statements regarding their candidacy for a job without knowing all the facts. In many cases, you never find out exactly why you don’t get an interview or a job that you wanted but to suggest that you are a perfect candidate means that perhaps the only person who thought this was you.

As with the links to previous posts that I mentioned above, you can read these posts to check out some popular reasons why people don’t get interviews and why they go to interviews and then don’t get the job.

Your attitude might be a big part of it.

People usually don’t like when other candidates attend an interview with a chip on their shoulder or who portray themselves in their resume with arrogance.

I recall reading a resume of one guy who wrote his career summary in the third person and referred to himself as a “boy wonder” which got many of us in the office laughing and not for a good reason. Statements like this – even if somehow true – don’t add anything to the conversation, at least nothing positive anyways.

Attitude and personality is a big determining factor in any job search and the way you project yourself to others can often be misconstrued and not necessarily for the right reason.

If you find that you often tell yourself or other people that you were the perfect candidate for a job that you either didn’t get or weren’t even allowed to interview for, it’s possible that your attitude is an issue and that perhaps your opinion of yourself is a bit higher than it should be.

The rule of the day relates to how your life is based on a true story and is probably better and more believable than a lot of fiction.

Some people think they’ve never accomplished anything interesting in their life or career and feel like they need to embellish their resume to make things sounds better.

Other than the fact that lying usually gets caught one way or the other, the truth is that you’ve probably accomplished a number of interesting things that can help to illustrate your experience, skills and talents and make you stand out from other candidates who are applying for the same jobs you are.

When I think of things I’ve done or experienced in my career, I’ll bet that some people reading this might have accomplished or experienced something similar and I’ll bet at least some of those things would be an interesting talking point in an interview.

Below is a list of some things that I’ve experienced in my career that I think are worth noting.

Among other things, I:

• Know what it’s like to work internationally, having worked overseas (in New Zealand) for 4 years.
• Have survived several corporate downsizings while many of my colleagues were being laid off.
• Have experienced being laid off twice myself during corporate downsizings.
• Know what it’s like to be self-employed.
• Have helped many people find better jobs.
• Have observed people lose jobs at every step of the job search process and most of the time they didn’t even know where they’d lost the job until I told them.
• Have written numerous online articles on job searching and career management.
• Wrote an ebook for career-minded individuals called Recruiter Secrets Revealed that can be bought and downloaded online.

I think at least some of those things are interesting and in each instance I can tell you a few things that I learned or experienced with each point that made me a better person.

During an interview a few years ago, I was asked numerous times about the fact that I’d started up a few websites on my own and the interviewer was very interested to not only hear about how I did it, but about other entrepreneurial endeavors I’d been part of.

Moral of the story: Think about things you’ve done, places you’ve visited, people you’ve met, experiences you’ve had. Chances are you have plenty of interesting things to weave into your resume or into a conversation that while not necessarily related to a job might give the person you’re speaking with an indication that you’re more just what is written on your resume.

Can working at the same company for many years hurt you if and when you start looking for a new job?

First off, staying at the same company and working for many years certainly isn’t a bad thing. Having some stability and not feeling like you need to change jobs – or being forced to change in the case where you lose your job – is not a bad thing!

But there can be downsides to staying at the same company for many years when you either decide to look for a new job or are forced to find a new one.

Certainly, if you haven’t interviewed or even had to search for a new job in years, you might have forgotten how to interview, not have a resume ready, not have considered who you’ll use as references and things of that nature. Certainly these things can be learned and/or completed but they might not be things that are readily available to you.

I can think of numerous cases where I’ve interviewed someone who has been with the same company for say 10 or more years and has decided to look for a new job.

The first thing I ask is “why?”

Why do you want to look for a new job after having spent all this time with the same employer?

My first thought is that something has gone wrong. A new manager has arrived that the person doesn’t like. Perhaps the company has been going downhill and they just decide it’s time to get out.

In some cases the person has done the same job for the entire time they worked at the company which can cause a problem in and of itself. If someone has spent many years in the exact same role, future employers might assume they aren’t really motivated and were simply comfortable in the company. Not too many employers look for unmotivated employees who are just looking for a place to hang out from 9-5 each day.

If they’ve worked in different (ie. progressively more senior) roles during their time at the company, well that’s a bit different. In that case, you can see a track record of achievement and of jobs that required an increasing skill level and level of responsibility.

Still, I can recall times when I was presenting a candidate to a company for a job where the candidate had been with the same company for 10+ years and the hiring manager asks the same question I did: Why does this person want to leave the company now, after such a long time there?

The second question – even if the hiring manager doesn’t ask it out loud – is probably “what are the chances we’ll go through the interview process, do references, offer them the job, and then the candidate will change their mind about leaving the company or accept a counteroffer to stay because they never really wanted to leave the company in the first place?”

A further question that often arises is whether or not the person who has spent a significant amount of time with the same company is a person whose skills have become stale. Working at the same company, using the same technology, working with perhaps the same people, facing the same issues. Has the person actually progressed and learned or simply done the same things over and over again?

It reminds me of an old joke: “He doesn’t have 10 years of experience. He has 1 year of experience 10 times.”

This is in the case of a person who has simply done the same thing over and over again in the same job and really hasn’t progressed or learned much during the 10 years.

Staying at the same company for many years is certainly not a bad thing especially when you consider the current economic climate but it can mean that if and when you start looking for a new job for whatever reason, you have a few things to consider and think about not the least of which is where and how to start your search.

I just read some research that was attributed to Accountemps – the world’s largest recruitment firm specializing in temporary financial and accounting professionals – that suggested that 80% of CFOs that they polled felt that it’s important or very important for entry-level accounting and finance professionals to have gained some relevant work experience while in university.

The remaining 20% of CFOs who were polled suggested that having relevant experience was either somewhat unimportant or not at all important.

It’s a good thing I’m not an accounting or finance professional because I worked in a factory doing a laboring job during university. It paid for university and I actually liked the work so I have no regrets but I have to admit, I did notice that others in my business school were working in jobs that seemed to give them relevant experience that I wasn’t getting.

This can also be an issue for people who want to make a career change but can’t get the necessary experience to do so.

How can you get relevant experience if your current job doesn’t give you the opportunity to get it or if you’re a recent grad who can’t find your first job?

1. Look for other opportunities within your current employer if you have one: If you are currently working, I’d first check within my own company for opportunities if you are trying to switch jobs or careers. If you have a good name within the company I’d think that you’d have a better chance of convincing your current employer that you are capable of doing something completely different than an employer who you’ve never worked for and who doesn’t know you.

2. Speak with people who’ve already done it: Speak with people who have already made the switch and ask them how they did it. How did they get a job with little to no relevant work experience? Can you do the same?

3. Search for internships: This means you’re basically working somewhere for free in exchange for the experience you get. The radio station I listen to is always making reference to the interns they have. These are people who are doing work at the station most likely unpaid in exchange for gaining valuable experience.

4. Look for part-time or volunteer opportunities: A friend of mine works in broadcasting and he gained valuable experience – and ended up getting a fulltime job out of it – by donating his time working at a local tv station for a few months. Not only did he get to mention this charitable work on his resume, they ended up offering him a fulltime job after a few months.