Being a job seeker can often be a frustrating experience. You send off dozens of applications and hear nothing in return. It can be a miserable experience, trying to sell yourself to employers and not have anybody take the bait.

For some people, it’s just a result of the job market and the fact that there aren’t many opportunities these days for people who once held manufacturing or clerical jobs. But for others, it’s actually their fault. In other words, they’re doing something that is blowing their chances of landing the type of job that they want.

Here are some of the wacky ways job seekers blow it.

They Treat Finding A Job Like A Clerical Task

Finding a job is a little bit like finding the right person to be with. You don’t know exactly what you want until you find it, and even then, you need to spend a little bit of time figuring out whether you’re really with the right person.

But all too often, job seekers treat finding work as a clerical, robotic task. They send out a bunch of cookie cutter resumes to various employers, hoping that one will take the bait. And when they get nothing in return, they wonder why. After all, they played the statistics game.

The problem with this approach is that it’s not just about statistics. Each employer is an individual, and so they’re looking for people who want to be a part of what their company is trying to achieve. Employers can smell a generic resume a mile off, and so these applications automatically get put to the bottom of the pile.

The trick here is to write something that is personal to the company. If you struggle with writing, then get professional resume writers to do it for you. The key thing to remember here is that you need to treat a prospective employer just like anybody else you might try to court

They Show Up To The Interview Ignorant

If you do a Google search and look for “interview advice,” you’ll find a bunch of stuff online about how you should always polish your shoes and turn up to interview fifteen minutes early, just in case. But most people who are switched on can manage these basics.

The real problems come in the interview itself. Many job seekers will turn up to the interview in a state of ignorance about the company that they allegedly want to work for, and this doesn’t usually go down well.

The problem with this approach is that it implicitly tells the employer that you’re not really all that interested in this particular company. It’s a little bit like going on a date and then when asked by the other person why you like them, you tell them you don’t know why and that you’re basically trying your luck.

Job seekers should treat every interaction they have with a company just like they were talking to the CEO. If you want to be taken seriously by a company, you have to take them seriously too.

This post has been contributed by Ryan Gatt, it may contain affiliate links.