1. Applying to positions you’re not qualified for. The fact is, all the nailed interviews and glowing references in the world are not going to land you jobs that require degrees or experience you don’t have.

2. Expecting job opportunities to come to you. About 80 percent of available jobs go unadvertised, which means they won’t be posted on a job board or waiting for you to circle them in the classifieds. It’s up to you to hunt them down.

3. Not taking your job search seriously. You must devote time to the process. “It’s amazing how many students will study for 30 hours, but won’t spend more than three minutes posting a résumé to a job board,” says Steven Rothberg, founder of www.CollegeRecruiter.com.

4. Not doing your homework. According to a survey by Accountemps, 44 percent of corporate executives say student job-seekers lack knowledge about their company. Know a company’s products/ services, its main competitors, and the current issues it’s affected by.

5. Addressing items “To Whom It May Concern.” Before you mail a résumé or cover letter, call the company and ask for the name of the hiring manager or division head of your area of interest. If answering a blind ad, address the cover letter to “Hiring Manager.”

6. Being too modest. Don’t be afraid to talk up everything you’ve accomplished. “The whole point of an interview is to explain why you should be hired,” says Brandi Baran, career services coordinator at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

7. Being overconfident. “Many students believe that if they’re witty, they’ll impress the interviewer,” says Tony Lee, editor of Collegejournal.com. That’s not the case. “If you’re not prepared, if you haven’t found out about the company, you’ll get blown out of the water.”

8. Not following up. You certainly don’t want to bug a company on a daily basis. But a phone call to find out the status of your application after sending a résumé or interviewing with an executive is perfectly acceptable.

9. Not presenting yourself professionally. That’s true not only in person, but on paper, too. An address of “Kappa Kappa Gamma House” may not connote a professional job seeker. And if your e-mail address is something like Superstud.com, get a new one.

10. Being unorganized. Keep a log of each potential employer showing information on the company, when you applied, what materials you sent, follow-up calls you made, and when you met with them, if you did.

—Tracey Randinelli
Source: http://www.careersandcolleges.com