10 Cognitive Distortions to Strictly Avoid in Your Job Search

Here are ten cognitive distortions – habitual negative or “twisted” thinking habits that can plague our job search, career development and professional relationships.

I’ve modified these from author and cognitive behavioral training expert David Burn’s book, “Feeling Good.” It’s important to be aware of these, and to realize if you get trapped in one of them as you continue your job search. So as I describe each of the ten cognitive distortions, I also provide specific examples of how they can negatively impact your job search. It’s even more important to learn how to break free of them. So I also explain how to get yourself back on track and stay motivated toward both your job search and longer-term career goals.

Ten Cognitive Distortions – #1 – All-or-Nothing Thinking

The first of our ten cognitive distortions is all-or-nothing thinking. When we mistakenly adopt all-or-nothing thinking, we look at things in absolute, black or white categories. For instance, if we don’t find a job right away or within a certain arbitrary period of time we feel like complete failures. A middle manager who’s been out of work for a few months and “down on her luck” might think often to herself, “Either I find a job that pays $50,000 or my whole job search is a waste of time!”

A friend or family member who learns about this would be able to see that she’s putting way too much pressure on herself. Perhaps it’s due to impatience or severe financial stress but either way, it’s creating a “mental trap” within her job search. The solution is for her to realize that job searching takes time – often more time than we hope or expect. In fact, it can take up to 6 months or more to find well-suited professional positions such as middle management, and that’s if we’re doing everything right and treating the job search like a full-time job.

No job search is a waste of time, and there’s no shame in taking a job that pays less than we’re used to for a while if that’s what it takes to make ends meet – so long as we continue our job search and stay motivated until we ultimately succeed in finding a better job within our chosen career. I’ve worked many “transitional jobs” over the years and it’s not unusual for people of all occupations and walks of life to have to do this from time to time – quite often at least once in their long career.

Ten Cognitive Distortions – #2 – Overgeneralization

The 2nd or our ten cognitive distortions is overgeneralization. When we over-generalize, we view a single negative event as a never-ending pattern of failure. An example is, “I performed poorly in my last job interview. I’ll never find a suitable job!”

Of course, this isn’t true. There are so many reasons why we might perform poorly in an interview on any particular day with any particular employer. Just because it’s happened once doesn’t mean that it will happen the same way the second and third times. Some factors are outside our control, like the mood and “energy” of the interviewers, our physical and emotional health on that particular day – even the weather and how that sometimes affects all of us.

However, many more factors are within our control – the greatest being our ability and willingness to review and learn from what happened in the interview so that we can improve our performance and come back stronger when our next opportunity comes along.

Job interviewing skills are not innate. They require practice, and if we haven’t attended a job interview for a while then the first one is likely to be a little rusty or unpolished. We may feel like “a fish out of water.” But with practice, we get better. The more we prepare and practice in advance, the better the end result for our job search.

Ten Cognitive Distortions – #3 – Mental Filter

The third or our ten cognitive distortions is the mental filter. When we use a “mental filter,” we tend to dwell on one negative detail, so that our vision of the entire situation becomes dark and cloudy like the drop of ink that discolours the entire beaker of water.

Interviews are also a good example of this type of twisted thinking. We might come out of an interview dwelling on one or two things that we did wrong, but fail to remember and give ourselves credit for all the other things that we did right! Many times in my career, a client has predicted that they failed an interview because he couldn’t answer one or two questions well – only to find out a few days later that the employer decided that he was the best candidate and offered him the job. It’s important to remember that we don’t have to be letter-perfect in the interview. No interview is perfect in that sense – it’s always a little uncomfortable, a little awkward at the best of times.

When I’m coaching clients on their interview skills, I always start by asking them what they did well in their last interview. And I continue asking them about these strengths until they run out of compliments for themselves. I do this to help them change their “mental filter” about their interview skills and performance.

Ten Cognitive Distortions – #4 – Discounting the Positive

When we discount the positive, we insist that our positive qualities or accomplishments don’t count. But we can’t afford to do this in our job search. Job searching is different from daily life because it requires that we speak highly of ourselves in a consistent, balanced and gently assertive way. Because many of us aren’t used to doing this, we can struggle with accepting compliments and remembering what our strongest skills, most helpful knowledge and greatest career accomplishments are. With more job search practice and experience, we can learn to make this important adjustment to accepting, celebrating and accurately describing our many strengths.

Ten Cognitive Distortions – #5 – Jumping to Conclusions

There are two common ways that we can jump to conclusions during our job search: Mind reading and “fortune telling.”

Mind Reading

When we engage in mind reading, we assume that people are reacting negatively to us even though there’s no definite evidence to support this thought. This can easily happen during many stages of your job search, especially in interviews and during networking events such as nerve-wracking job fairs.:-)

Or perhaps you don’t hear back right away after sending your resume and cover letter, or after completing your interview and you automatically assume the worst. My best personal examples of this come from when I attended panel interviews. I’ve attended three panel interviews over the years, and in two of them I found it tough not to engage in “mind reading” because all of the interviewers refused to be friendly or even to crack a smile.

In one of these panel interviews I answered questions in front of more than 20 people! In the other one, I was interviewed by a group of co-workers who I’d been working with for the better part of a year. In retrospect I knew that the interviewers’ seeming coldness was really just their way of trying to remain objective and fair to all candidates, but at the time I felt isolated and a little intimidated by their responses.

Fortune Telling”

When we engage in fortune telling, we arbitrarily predict that things either can’t change or will turn out badly.

This is common even before we start our job search. Perhaps this kind of negative thinking prevents us from even starting to look for new work, keeping us trapped in a job that is actually below our level of ability or expertise. Uggh! The whole job search process takes on a negative tone, and we detest it.

Again, I think that a large part of the answer is to increase confidence through building stronger job search skills. How to write a better cover letter, resume and thank you letter. How to build and maintain a strong reference list. How to ace a job interview. Rather than “fortune telling,” we can get on with our job searches and careers by developing job search skill expertise.

Read 6 - 10

Did you use one of these 10 most overused buzzwords in your LinkedIn profile this year?

Wonder what really makes people cringe when they look at your LinkedIn Profile? It’s those clichéd words and phrases. You know what they are — those ambiguous ones that really don’t tell you anything.

As we head into 2011 our Analytics Team decided to take a crack at finding the most clichéd and overused phrases for the past year using over 85 million LinkedIn profiles. Here are our 2010 top 10 buzzwords used in the USA.

Top 10 overused buzzwords in LinkedIn Profiles in the USA – 2010

1. Extensive experience
2. Innovative
3. Motivated
4. Results-oriented
5. Dynamic
6. Proven track record
7. Team player
8. Fast-paced
9. Problem solver
10. Entrepreneurial

Given the broad reach of LinkedIn across the world we went a step further and took a look at how overused terms are reflected around the world. While members from the USA, Canada and Australia tend to emphasize their “extensive experience”, Brazilians, Indians and Spaniards identify themselves as “dynamic” professionals. Members in the UK call themselves more “motivated” and the French, the Germans, the Italians and the Dutch see themselves as “innovative”.

Here’s a chart we put together that shows you the #1 most overused LinkedIn profile buzzword in each of those countries.

34 New Social Media Resources You May Have Missed

Mashable’s back with another round up of new social media tools and resources from the past week or so. With all the holiday madness, we understand if you somehow missed one or two of these great posts, so read on for the full list.

Our Social Media section dives into the top viral video ads of 2010, an early screening review of TRON: Legacy, and stats on what the world Googled this past year. Tech & Mobile highlights 10 Chrome (Chrome) web apps worth checking out, tips for backing up your Tumblr (Tumblr) blog, and how Operation Payback executes its DDoS attacks. Business rounds out the list with lessons businesses can learn from entrepreneurs, how social media is changing television, and — most importantly — how to keep your business running through the holidays.

Get All 34 Resources @ Mashable

Help! I’m boring. What would I tweet about?

By jamessnider

I lead social media labs for job seekers in the Dallas – Fort Worth area. After we have spruced up their LinkedIn profile, we frequently move on to Twitter as the next social media platform of interest. I often hear the same objection, “My life is boring….my job is boring…I am boring….what would I possibly have to tweet about?”

Let me introduce myself to you, “Hi. I’m James Snider, semiconductor marketer.” You know, I can not remember the last time I saw an action movie where the main character was a semiconductor marketer. It is just not that interesting.

So what am I going to tweet about? I could talk about the cost of through-hole vias or applications where gallium arsenide makes sense. I would probably put together a network of about 5 super geeky followers. However, it is not the super geeks who are going to hire a marketer. It is upper management I am after.

I am going to tweet about where semiconductor production is ramping up. Hint, think “southeast asia” as in “Viet Nam.” How did I find this information? I went to a Happy Hour with a bunch of my former bosses (and boss’s bosses). They are all VPs, CEOs, angel investors and the like. I just asked the question and then tweeted what they told me.

Which semiconductor companies are starting to make money or held their own during the terrible 2010 market? I stumbled across a great list on the Yahoo! financial web site. I was checking to see if my shares of Google were making any money (getting closer…maybe in 2011) and read an article about what stocks are set to pop…and why. I tweeted it.

Which semiconductor companies are starting to hire aggressively? I read it on Twitter. Retweets are fair.

What sorts of people are interested in this sort information? CEOs, CMOs, VPs Marketing, Directors….all the sorts of people whose attention I would like to attract. By making myself a source of good information…the sort of information people in my segment would like to know about, I build a good reputation and make myself a “person of interest” to people who might like to hire me.

James Snider
Global Business Development and Social Media Marketing
jsnider1394@gmail.com
817-905-1394
Anyone can give you social media. I make sure it’s marketing.

Original Post

2 Tips to Being More Referable

In spite of all the advice out there on how to network, I’m still seeing lots of people failing at two basic, yet vital elements to networking success.

The goal of networking is to get people to refer you. So, the big question is: Are YOU referable?

The way to increase the chances of getting referred is to do the following:

TIP #1 – Make it Easy

Your network members are busy. And quite frankly, getting you a job is not top on their list. So, if you want people to help you, you must make it simple for them to take action. It’s your job to research their LinkedIn connections to see if they know someone at the company you want to land an interview with. It’s also your job to create a short list of ideal employers that you can circulate so they can get a clear sense of what kind of organization you want to work for.

Watch this video to learn more PLUS tip #2

Three Ways to Connect with Online Influencers

By Entrepreneur Staff at Entrepreneur.com


Over the past five years, connecting on social networking sites has rocketed from a niche activity into a phenomenon that engages millions of internet users. In fact, “member communities” are now visited by more than two-thirds (67 percent) of the global online population, including social networks and blogs, according to The Nielsen Company, a global research firm.

In today's networking space, you need to be efficient with your time and even more effective with whom you choose to connect with. There are two types of networkers online: the posters and the seekers. Your business is a poster, which means you actively post valuable information, resources, tips and offers. The seekers are your customers. They're actively seeking your products and/or services. You'll find seekers in discussion areas, forums, groups and engaging on fan pages.

Connecting with these seekers is a vital element to your small business's overall marketing plan. Here are three ways to connect with them.

Finding the 'High-Level Networker'
The top three social sites to first consider are LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Xing, a business networking for professionals, is another. These sites are massive online communities filled with potential high-level networkers. To get started, set up your profile and navigate to get familiar with the sites' offerings.

When searching for quality contacts to network with online, you'll want to look for high-level networkers (HLN). They're active online, have at least 500 connections and have filled out their profiles completely. Make sure these contacts have at least one of the three criteria before you connect with them online.

Some examples of HLNs would be decision makers, executives, the media and people you know as the movers and shakers in your industry. Don't let the fact that you don't yet know the person hold you back from sending an invite to connect. Whether you're offering help, sending them a resource, or introducing them to one of your connections, make sure your invite is about how you can help them, not how they can help you.

Target Your Connections
Target market connections (TMC) are a group of consumers at which your company aims its products and services. They're found by using keywords in the search section on social sites as well as in groups and discussion areas in your area of interest or focus. TMCs are mostly seekers that chat and seek out information by posting questions online.

The key is to join the groups and discussions where your target market is talking and engage with them. You can also send them an invite to connect. Make sure to let them know that you sent them the invite because you have similar interests and you're looking to expand your professional network.

Another way to find your target market is to investigate competitors' marketing methods. See where another business that offers the same or similar products and services advertises their links and posts on social sites. Searching in your field will often turn up places where your audience goes when they're looking for something in your industry.

Engage in Groups and Discussions
Even the most unsociable entrepreneur can interact on message boards and blogs. Groups and discussion areas on social sites are all over the internet and social media sites. It's important to find a dozen or so of these areas and not only join and monitor them but engage in the conversations as well.


Full Article With Additional Tips

What Twitter Chats Can Do For Your Job Search

If you’re on Twitter, you’ve likely at least heard about Twitter chats before. You may have even lurked in on one or two before. But until you actually participate in them, you’re not likely to get much out of a chat besides more job search or career advice—which you likely don’t need at this point because you already regularly read blogs and books on this very topic.

You may be wondering: What else can I get out of an online chat?

Connections. People to add to your professional network and create mutually beneficial relationships with. As you know, networking is still one of the most effective ways to land a job, and that’s because other people can introduce you to key influencers and inform you about unadvertised openings. Career chats involve all types of students and professionals that can benefit from building a relationship with one another.

Specific advice from people who do the hiring or recruiting. In many of the chats focused on the job search, you can submit questions for the experts to answer formally during the chat. Because it’s in real-time, you can ask for clarifications or specific tactics to go along with their advice. You can also talk directly to the experts during the chat. Where else do you get opportunities like that?

Visibility. When you regularly participate in a chat, other regulars take notice of you. Many even have Twitter lists dedicated to different types of job seekers they’ll add you to. Also, if an employer looks for you online, they will see that you’re serious about your job search.

Dedication. Just like blogging shows dedication and professional growth, a Twitter chat can do the same. With the tens or hundreds of different experiences or opinions flying around during the scheduled time, you’re likely to learn something new each time. You may even realize that you can improve some aspect of your search in order to better yourself as a professional.

Twitter Chat Schedule Plus Original Career Rocketeer Article