It’s rare to leave one job and find another in just five days or so (unless you had a job lined up before you left).
Instead, most job searches can take weeks or months and these are hard and can be very depressing (after all, you’re going to a lot more of the word “no” before you get to “yes.”
So it’s wise to know this upfront and to pace yourself. To know that it will be a slog and that the only way to get through it is to…go through it.
Read below for some tips on how to save your energy and stay upbeat during a long job search.
- Don’t focus on the outcome; focus on the process. After all, it can take months to find work. If you look at your ultimate success as whether or not you get a job, you can keep your mood down in the dumps for forever as days go by with no new job. Instead, focus on the tasks of the job hunt. Consider a day a success if you contact X number of people for networking meetings. Or if you had X number of meetings. If you sent individually crafted resumes and cover letters to X number of people, and so on.
- Speaking of the process, give yourself process-oriented goals every day. For example, if you set a process goal of reaching out to X number of people for meetings each day, consider the day a success if you do reach out to X number of people. Reward yourself something small; at the least acknowledge to yourself that your day was a success.
- Don’t apply for every job that you think you’re qualified for. Instead, look for quality, not quantity. Successful job searchers know that it’s not a “throw enough stuff (resumes/applications) at the problem (finding a job) and something is bound to stick. Job hunting isn’t really a job application game. Instead, it’s a how-many-people-can-I-talk-to game. In other words, apply to only those jobs for which you have most of the stated wanted attributes.
- Just because you should only apply for jobs for which you’re qualified, doesn’t mean you should settle for a position similar to what you last held, especially if that position was boring, tedious, etc. Instead, you should aim to look for work that you know will engage and excite you. A job like that is out there: go get it!
- Try to stay away from negative people. If you can’t, at least don’t talk about your job hunt in front of them. Instead, bring your job hunt successes and frustrations only to those people whom you know have your back no matter what and who will help keep your spirits up.
Don’t forget to work with staffing services. If you’re looking for work in Chicago, Anchorage, Seattle, Tacoma, Lake Oswego, or Portland, the recruiters at the Opti Staffing Group can help you in your job search. Contact us today.