Looking for work? 5 mistakes that will hurt your chances of getting hired

Social media is a place where we can loosen up a little. You can post jokes, silly pictures, or whatever on Instagram, X, Facebook and more. Unlike most social media sites, our sponsor, LinkedIn, is pretty buttoned-up.

You always need to put your best foot forward. After all, it’s where you connect with coworkers and find new careers. That means you should avoid being too personal since that can damage your credibility.

But that’s just one of many common LinkedIn flubs. You may be guilty of a few more subtle errors without knowing it. Avoid these LinkedIn mistakes — they might hurt you in the long run.

Error No. 1: The net you’re casting is too wide

Filmmakers design blockbusters to appeal to a broad audience. They want as many warm bodies in the seats as possible, so they avoid plotlines that may alienate audience members. The plot is all very general: The good guy fights the bad guy, the bad guy loses, they all live happily ever after, and so on.

Your LinkedIn profile doesn’t have to follow general guidelines like that. You want to appeal to niche audiences.

Tailor your LinkedIn page to show people you’re a respectable professional in your industry. If you’re too vague and don’t include personal details, you may have general appeal … but lack individual distinction.

Bottom line: When job hunting, you want to stand out. Emphasize the experiences that make you different. Cast too wide a net, and the best fish will slip away.

Error No. 2: You say ‘yes’ to every friend request

You may get overly excited by the influx of friend invites when new to LinkedIn. You may think a surplus of connections shows recruiters you’re social and have a vast network. However, if they go through your contacts and find obvious scam accounts, that could be a strike against you.

Indiscriminate connections can be tempting, but inflating your numbers makes it more difficult for recruiters to understand who you are. They want to understand what drives you, which helps them determine if you’re a good fit for a role.

For example, if you’re a journalist and have 100 friends in the construction industry, they may wonder what’s going on. Are you considering a career shift? Are you more interested in carpentry than fact-checking?

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The Microsoft Windows Defender scam

Open/download audio

Scammers pose as Microsoft to trick you into calling fake support numbers. Here’s how to protect yourself. 

Every Tesla owner doxed: Hackers created a website (now taken down) that shows a map of Tesla owners’ names, addresses, phone numbers and emails in the U.S. Why? They’re protesting Elon Musk. The site says it doesn’t endorse or condemn vandalism, but the cursor symbol is literally a Molotov cocktail. If you want your info removed, you have to prove you sold your car.

$5,700

Asking price for 509-SWIFTIE. That’s the phone number 509-794-3843. Taylor Swift-related phone numbers have become a hot commodity. Also for sale: 75-ERAS-TOUR for $4,500 and 41-SWIFT-ERA for $3,300. I have a Roomba that I named “Taylor Swiffer.” I named my iPhone “My little phoney.” Before you ask, none of my tech is named “Hugh Jass.”

Do you bank on your phone? What about checking email and shopping? If you said “yes” to any of those, you’re a target. A keylogger captures everything you type, including your account numbers and passwords. Encrypt your keystrokes with EndpointLock. Hit this link for 10% off.

Do you bank on your phone? What about checking email and shopping? If you said “yes” to any of those, you’re a target. A keylogger captures everything you type, including your account numbers and passwords. Encrypt your keystrokes with EndpointLock. Hit this link for 10% off.

Do you bank on your phone? What about checking email and shopping? If you said “yes” to any of those, you’re a target. A keylogger captures everything you type, including your account numbers and passwords. Encrypt your keystrokes with EndpointLock. Hit this link for 10% off.

1 billion people

Watching podcasts on YouTube. Their monthly numbers blow Spotify and every other streaming service in the podcast game out of the water. Yup, you can watch my show there

400 million

Weekly active ChatGPT users. Whoa. That’s double their numbers last August and more than Reddit. The AI train has left the station, folks.

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🇨🇳 Numbers speak: Since DeepSeek was unveiled, OpenAI, which has attracted roughly $15 billion in funding, and Anthropic, with nearly $3 billion behind it, both have seen their valuations dip by up to 20%. DeepSeek led to a massive sell-off in AI tech stocks, with Nvidia losing nearly $600 billion in market value in a single day.

Drowning in numbers? Your favorite AI chatbot has your back if you’re brainstorming or need to jazz up a presentation. Plug in a list of numbers or any other data and prompt, “Analyze this information. Explain any trends or insights you find.” Uploading a pic also works.

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Steer clear: Willow, a company that fronts bill money to customers, left over 240,000 private records in a non-password-protected database. It included customers’ names, numbers, transaction amounts, bank account details and partial credit card numbers. This is why I never recommend hot, new finance apps.

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Check your 401(k): A whopping one in five Americans has an inactive 401(k) account. The average value? $55,400! If you left a job and never dealt with your account, call your former human resources department and ask if you have an inactive account. You can also try this site.Stop hackers in their tracks: EndpointLock encrypts your keystrokes when you enter usernames, account numbers and passwords so no one can copy and steal them. It’s genius, really. Hit this link for 10% off.