I hate to miss an opportunity to share a career lesson related to pop culture. Did you watch the Oscars? Did you, like many, wonder how in the world anyone had let Anne Hathaway out of the house in a dress that made it look like she was having a MAJOR wardrobe malfunction? You’d think that if she’d looked in the mirror, she might have noticed, but the dress was hardly flattering for the best actress in a supporting role. What a shame that everyone seems to be focused on the dress error instead of her big win.
(If you missed it, you can view some photos here.)
Then, Jennifer Lawrence fell UP the steps on her way to picking up her best actress award. (Take a look at the video.) Luckily, she did not seem hurt, and made a joke of it on the podium, but if you take a look at the dress she wore, it’s not surprising that she fell.
What career lesson can we learn here? The Business Insider link about Anne Hathaway says she decided to change her dress choice three hours before the show. Apparently, she switched to the Prada dress instead of the Valentino — after Valentino had already announced she would be wearing their gown. Seems a faux pas, but more importantly — the lesson here is do not make last-minute choices when it comes to your job hunt.
That means you should set out your interview attire (and try it on) way in advance of even having an interview scheduled. While your wardrobe malfunction probably won’t cause the buzz that Ms. Hathaway’s did, you never want people talking about what you wore when they should be remembering you for your ravishing skills.
As far as the lesson from Ms. Lawrence — think about everything in practical terms. I’m not sure how she ever planned to get up the stairs in that huge dress. You don’t want to (literally OR figuratively) fall on your face when it comes to your job hunt, so think about the different eventualities; what will you be asked to do? What questions might you need to prepare to answer? Don’t “stumble” through your job hunt, because you probably won’t be forgiven as quickly as an Academy Award winner!
People have short attention spans today, and recruiters and hiring managers are no different from the rest of the population. 
Job seekers have a lot of networking resources at their disposal. Theoretically, it should be possible to either a) find connections that will introduce you to people to help with your job search, or b) introduce yourself to those contacts via social media. 
Are you sick of hearing about how important it is to tap your network to earn referrals and jobs? You hear it from your friends, your career coach, and when you pick up a book about how to find a job. If you’re spending all of your time pushing out resumes to apply for positions, you’re missing a crucial piece of a successful job hunter’s strategy. 
One of the most important factors you probably aren’t considering in your job hunt is how important it is to influence what people you do not know think of you. What? You need to worry about people you don’t know? Absolutely—it’s probably the most overlooked job-search step you aren’t doing anything about.