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Paul Nelson reportingChances are you've applied for a job once which you didn't get. So, what went wrong? A popular Web site has a list of things people shouldn't do when applying for a job.
If you ask career consultants in Salt Lake City, they would say the job market here is still nice and stable.
Career counselor Brenda Yamagata, with Yamagata and Associates, said, "Even though there are other areas of the country that are experiencing downturns, this job market is still doing quite well."
But, being in a good job market doesn't necessarily mean it's easier to get the job you're truly looking for. Yamagata says many people look for a job only when they lose their current position, and by that time, they're panicking.
"What people need to do is understand what they're looking for, what they're good at and where they'd like to be. If they're in that panic mode, they're not thinking in those terms. They're only thinking in terms of, ‘This is the job and these are the only things I can do,'" she said.
Careerbuilder.com came out with a list of 25 reasons you won't get the job you're applying for. At the top of the list was "Not keeping track of accomplishments." Yamagata says that helps employers learn about how you work.
"What I would be wanting to listen for are what skills, what behaviors you used to accomplish that," she said.
Number two is "Leaving on a bad note." Carla Stoker with Organizational Consultants to Management says you should stay away from saying anything negative about your work history, which could be hard to do sometimes.
"Sometime people will try to draw us out and encourage us to say something negative. ‘Tell me about a time you had a conflict with a co-worker,'" she said.
Number three on the list is "Not networking." OCM President Dave Hilbig thinks it should be number one.
"They (job seekers) get so work focused that they don't make contacts. They don't participate in professional organizations. They don't go to conferences," he said.
Hilbig also says bringing up salary too early in an interview turns off a lot of employers.
E-mail: pnelson@ksl.com
