Here is Why You Shouldnt Apply for Zillion Jobs at the Same Employer

Here is Why You Shouldn’t Apply for Zillion Jobs at the Same Employer How many times have you come across multiple job advertisements from the same company and thought if you should apply for several available positions?Hell, you might’ve even read about it on the internet and saw that a lot of people claim it is a good thing to do that.Well, let me tell you something. It is not, and we are here to prove it to all those skeptics out there.In this text, we are going to discuss what people’s motives are when they are thinking about applying for multiple jobs at the same company, why it is not a good thing to do and what is the alternative.Without any further due, let’s begin!WHY PEOPLE APPLY FOR MULTIPLE JOBS?Let us first examine why people would even apply for multiple jobs at the same employer. There are several pretty obvious reasons, so let’s get into it!A Dream Come True!My friend Marc has been working all kinds of jobs over the years, but what he desired the most is to work for a multinational company ever since he was near the end of his s tudies. Now, Marc’s dream company is Coca Cola.A while ago, Marc has been searching the internet for a new job and then he saw the job ad from Coca Cola.Since it was the position in the finance section, and he had finished his Economics studies, he decided to apply.Then, after he had applied, there was a pop-up showing all the job ads posted by Coca Cola. There were open positions in marketing, finance, administration, and a couple more sectors.Without any thoughts, Marc applied for several positions, for which he knew he had enough qualifications.After all, it was his dream to work for a company like Coca Cola, so he didn’t want to waste that opportunity.This is what people think in these moments when they are so hyped about even the slightest chance of getting that job in the company they just love.More applications ? Higher chance for getting the jobSubmitting multiple job applications to the same employer doesn’t raise your chances of getting one of the jobs. Job seeking i s sometimes a lottery, that much is true, but in this case, it is the wrong philosophy.Let’s take Marc for example. When he had been applying for those jobs in Coca Cola, he applied for jobs in finance, marketing, and administration sectors, figuring he would get one of those jobs.He merely thought that the fact he had applied for multiple jobs would increase his chances of him being hired.This is kind of thinking, not only Marc, but all of us experienced. When you are desperately looking for a job, you are trying to find ways to increase your chances of getting the kind of job you wanted, so you usually respond to multiple job ads and apply to multiple positions with the hope that some of those companies might invite you to an interview.Then, when you are invited to multiple interviews, you tend to try to negotiate the best terms and you usually pick the company which offers those terms.But, this is not the same situation like the one where you apply for multiple jobs at the same employer.That is an entirely different thing.Red or Blue Pill?Life is usually about choices. Whether to get this, whether to do that.Some choices are easy, such as the decisions like what to eat or what to wear, but some decisions are a bit harder to make, because they matter much more to us and have a great impact on our life, like for example, what school to go to, what job to do, etc.In Marc’s example, he was faced with a difficult choice on which job in Coca Cola should he apply for. Should he go for a job in the finance sector, for which he has the most experience, or perhaps for the one in marketing or even administration?Marc, being blinded by his love for Coca Cola, didn’t think this through and decided to apply for all three jobs, thinking it would increase his chances of getting one of those jobs.Same as Marc, sometimes we cannot make up our minds about what do we really want with both our lives and our job, so we take the easy route and just try to do everything and apply for multiple jobs at once, even though we are not quite sure if we even want some of those jobs or do we simply apply for them because we either like the company or because we like to play lottery and hope to get the jackpot in the form of a job.Not Sure What They Really WantAnother very common reason people tend to just spam job applications is that they are still unsure of what they really want to do.This is not the case for just jobs, but also for every similar decision, like for example, the decision about what high school or college to go to.I personally didn’t know what I want to do with my life when I had to pick a high school, so I just went with the high school based around Economics, since there were a lot of girls there. I know, silly way to pick a school, but it turned out great in the end! I managed to get to the Faculty of Economics and found my love towards that field.It is the same with jobs, some people just don’t know what kind of job they want to do, so they go with multiple options, to try out several different areas and decide which one suits them the most.And to be honest, it is a valid reason, but as we will soon see, it doesn’t make it any less bad.WHY NOT APPLY FOR A ZILLION JOBS AT THE SAME EMPLOYER?Now that we have gone over the reason people tend to apply for zillion jobs at the same employer, let’s discuss why it is actually not a good idea to do that.It is UnprofessionalWhen interviewers examine people’s CVs and invite them to a job interview, they expect them to act professional, because most companies are looking for capable people who are ready to work in a dynamic environment in order to achieve company’s goals.And in order to do that, you have to be professional, to act responsibly and show your employers that you are the right kind of person and that they didn’t make mistake by hiring you.Now, when the interviewers see that you spammed multiple job applications in their company, they might consider that m ove very unprofessional, because it kind of tells them that you are not interested in the job that much, and that you didn’t do your research about the specific job.Of course, that doesn’t have to be true, but it almost always is.You must be wondering what became of Marc in the matter of Coca Cola jobs.Well, in short, he didn’t get any of those three jobs, because of this and the reasons we are going to mention below.It Shows IndecisivenessLike with everything in life, you will have to make a lot of decisions on your job as well. That is why companies are looking for people who are capable of making tough decisions, who are not afraid to do so.Because any hesitation can cause a hold-up and that usually means more problems for the company, which is, of course, what everyone is trying to avoid.By applying for multiple jobs at the same company, your decision could be interpreted in two ways.First, they might think you really like the company and that you are very hyped about work ing for it and that is why you have applied more than once.On the other hand, they might also think that you are not a really decisive person, which is not good for the company.They might also ask you why you decided to apply for multiple jobs like they did ask Marc. Of course, he told them the story about Coca Cola being his dream company and such, but in the end, it wasn’t enough and they rejected him.Even though he was honest about it, it wasn’t easy for them to decide, because you can never know if people lie during the interviews or not.So, instead of believing him, they probably thought he is an indecisive person.It can be a Turnoff for the CompanyOne of the major reasons that come forward regarding this topic is that applying for multiple jobs at the same company can lead to a turnoff for that company,as Alison Doyle, founder, and CEO of CareerToolBelt.com says.Alison is known to give some good tips about this topic.The first thing she mentions though is that you should c onsider all your strengths and weaknesses and put them side by side with the job requirements before you decide to apply for multiple jobs.In other words, you should see if you qualify for all the positions before applying.Next thing she says is that when you decide to apply for multiple positions, you have to be realistic.If a company has a lot of open applications, you shouldn’t apply for more than 2 or 3 at most, because if you would apply for, let’s say 5,6 positions, it could be a turnoff for the company and goes side by side with the previous point, which wouldn’t make you look good in the eyes of the interviewer.Other people say that you should never apply for more than one job at a time and that if you don’t get an answer in some time, you could apply for the next position.The problem with that, says Alison, is that by the time that happens, there might not be another job to apply for, because most companies, at least bigger ones, post their job ads at the same time, no matter the position.This means that you would lose the chance of applying for another job you might’ve wanted, so it would’ve been your loss.In this regard, Alison says that the only way to avoid this is to take a premeditated risk and apply for more positions using the tactic she mentioned earlier.WHAT TO DO INSTEAD?Now that we went over the reasons why it would be bad to simply apply for zillion jobs at the same employer, let’s see what you can do instead and how that helped our friend Marc.As you know, Marc didn’t manage to get the job at Coca Cola, his dream company. But instead of giving in to despair, he decided to see what he did wrong and learn from it, in order to try again in the future.So far, he hasn’t gotten the chance to reapply for a job in Coca Cola, but he did apply for another job in another big company, which is IKEA.There were also multiple positions available, but this time, instead of rushing and sending his resume to all of them, he decided to pl ay it smart and prepare. He used 3 simple steps in order to take the best course of action:Locate job positions of interest;Comparing qualifications with requirements;Choosing the right moment in the hiring process.In the end, Marc got the job he wanted and is now pretty happy there, since he is doing the job he likes and he even changed his mind about his dream company, which is now IKEA.Not because he doesn’t like Coca Cola as a company anymore, but because he fell in love with Swedish meatballs he can get in IKEA restaurant.Locate Job Positions of InterestThe first thing to do when deciding whether to apply for more than one job at the same company is to check all available options and decide which open jobs would suit you.In case you aim to apply for, let’s say two or three positions, and then it is not such a big issue to deal with.But if you just want to get into the company and don’t care much about a specific position, it wouldn’t be a good idea to just apply for all available positions.Instead, you should stop and think about what you want to do and how to do it.First of all, by applying for all available positions, you would make it much harder for hiring a manager to evaluate you, simply because they would have to compare your qualifications for each position individually, which is not an easy task.Then there is a problem of making you look bad. Some of it we had already mentioned.You would look very indecisive and definitely not professional, which is something you want to avoid.Apart from that, it would just show them that you appear very desperate, which is not good, no one wants desperate people in their team.So, the best thing you can do is trying to choose those positions for which you are the most qualified in order to look more professional and make yourself easier to make a decision about which of them you should really apply.Comparing Qualifications with the RequirementsWhen you have narrowed your possible choices for a job positio n, it is time to evaluate yourself and see if your qualifications match the job requirements, because interest alone isn’t enough to get you your job. Apart from that, you have to be qualified to do it.The problem with a lot of people is that they tend to ignore this step, and simply apply for the job because they like it.Now, we are not talking about fresh graduates who don’t have the necessary experience for any job. But they can fall into this category as well.It is better for them to compare their own skills and all the different things they had learned in school and college, which is probably not much but should still be countable.The main thing to note here is that you should always be realistic when you look for a job.If you notice that you are qualified for a specific job, go for it, but if you see that your attributes and skills don’t match the job requirements, you shouldn’t waste time on trying to get that job anyway.It could have a negative impact on your chances to get the jobs for which you have good enough qualifications. Apart from that, it could cause unnecessary confusion for the person who is tasked with hiring you.Choosing the Right Moment in the Hiring ProcessProbably the crucial question that pops up when you think about this topic is what is the right moment to apply or show interest in multiple positions at the same company?One of the appropriate moments to do this and express your interest in multiple positions is during your first talk with the hiring manager, which usually happens over the phone, so-called the initial phone screening.Before applying though, you should make sure to change the resume to fit each job position you want to apply for. It is really important to do this, especially if you want to apply for somewhat different jobs in the same company.On the other hand, if you have already passed several stages of the hiring process, and perhaps made it to the final interview, you should probably not mention anything a bout you being willing to try out other available positions as well. Why is that, you might think?Well, if you had applied for finance assistant and almost got the job, and then if you would tell them that you saw they intend to hire marketing assistant as well and that you are willing to discuss that positions if possible, that would be very unprofessional and it would show them that you are very easily distracted and that you tend to swap commitments often, which is not good.Now, it is definitely not easy to just ignore all potential job applications if you are really so keen to join the company. However, as we were able to see in Marc’s case, it is not a good idea to just spam applications for each position as well.That’s why going through these 3 steps is very important. They help you maintain that self-control you need in order to stay calm and not lash out. WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU CANNOT DECIDE?Choosing your job is one of the toughest decisions you will ever have to make, beca use it will define your future, thus making it very important. That’s why you should choose wisely.But it often happens that people have no idea what they want to do and that could present a problem to them and to the company they want to work in.If you really like a company and you are really interested in multiple jobs, but you cannot decide which one to apply for, you should really go over those 3 steps we had mentioned above.Since you had already picked the jobs, you should really compare your qualifications to the job requirements. That way you will be able to find out which job positions are the most suited for you and which ones you should avoid.That said, even if you like a job and are interested in it, you should first try to evaluate yourself and see if you are even qualified to do that job. If not, then there is really no need to apply for it.CONCLUSIONThat was all folks! We discussed why it is not a good idea to apply for zillion jobs at the same employer and what the good alternative is.Now, what is left is that you go and search for your dream company and apply everything we taught you here.