Though it’s not the worst mistake you can make, trying to portray yourself as a professional “jack-of-all-trades” can actually work against you. Unless you are going into a highly standardized position like in a leadership development program, employers are looking for you to demonstrate your unique fit for a position.
I can speak from experience that the most common reason for passing over highly qualified candidates is because there is usually one stand-out applicant with just the specialized experience a company is looking for.
To prevent this from happening, decide what you want beforehand, decide what your particular sales angle is going to be and then aggressively search out those particular opportunities. Chose your resume drops strategically, paying particular attention to language in job listings referring to skills or experience denoted by the terms like “preferred,” “strongly desired” or “a plus.” These terms give you enormous insight into what is going to differentiate the run-of-the-mill applicant from those that will go all the way to the final round.
Trust me, doing this will ultimately save you so much time and frustration. You’ll find yourself going farther and deeper into interview processes, allowing you to maximize the chances that you’ll find that perfect job rather than “just a paycheck.”
