SoFi Blog

Do you ever wonder if potential employers are Googling you before they even invite you in for a job interview? Well, wonder no more – because in most cases, the answer is yes.

Employers will often do online due diligence before making contact with a candidate. With the amount of info that’s publicly available online today, they can use the web to do everything from vetting credentials to identifying potential risks related to faulty hires.

“You’re interviewing them as much as they’re interviewing you.”

Ever hear this piece of advice before a big job interview? In my opinion this is one of the most misleading job search tips you’ll ever hear.  It implies that an interview is a two-way street, when in reality, until an offer is extended, there’s no two ways about it.

Whether you’re looking for a new job, angling for a promotion or just seeking more responsibility in your current role, most people would agree that summer is not the best time to accomplish big career moves.   People are out on vacation, attitudes are relaxed and things move slowly, making it difficult to schedule interviews and get exposure at work.

As a career counselor and career coach, one of the most common questions I hear from clients is how to improve a resume.  While there are plenty of tips and best practices out there, I find that a lot of job seekers get tripped up from hearing too much advice about what to include, how to format things, etc.  Clients often say to me, “Someone told me to do this, but someone else told me to do that – which one should I do?”

It’s a fair question, but it’s one that always raises a red flag for me.  Why?  Because I don’t think job candidates should spend excessive time and effort on their resumes.  And that’s exactly what all this well-meaning advice causes them to do.

Want to know the secret to an effective job search?  Here it is: There is no secret – at least not one that works for everybody.

Are there best practices?  Absolutely, and you probably already know most of them.  Are there wrong ways to go about it?  Yes, and they’re pretty obvious, too.  But if anyone tells you that the secret to getting a job is “doing X to your resume” or “doing Y with your LinkedIn account,” they’re missing a critical point – which is that every candidate is different and therefore needs to take a different approach.