Salam,
I just came across this article. I thought I should share it with everyone here.
** Confidence Through Accomplishment – How to Feel Better About Your Job Search **
By Michael K. Norris
“Who here doesn’t have a job!” The speaker asked in a booming,
inappropriately jovial voice.
About 80% of the audience that had crammed into the sweltering
auditorium raised their hand. I looked at the woman on my right who
was in her early twenties with her hand raised. Then I glanced at the
man on my left who looked as old as my father. Both had their hands
raised and had a similar look on their faces: a mixture of fear and
hopelessness.
“Who here already has a job!” The speaker now asked.
I wasn’t sure if I should raise my hand. So many others in the
audience did so hesitantly, and I wondered if they were underemployed
or between scattered freelance assignments, as I was. Asking if you
have a job isn’t always a yes or no question – especially today.
The speaker at the Hartford job fair went on and on, speaking as if
giving the inaugural address at the White House, occasionally mixing
humorous references in his presentation. No one laughed. It was clear
the presentation had been written in the late nineties, when job
seekers were sure that there was another job waiting on Monday if they
were downsized the previous Friday.
Now we have an embarrassingly high unemployment rate – which hangs at 6.2% as of the end of July. Businesses are still cutting jobs and
reorganizing, and it’s the summertime. All these factors spell a
longer job search cycle for absolutely everyone. A lot of people can
be out of work for far longer than they are emotionally, spiritually -
and yes - financially capable.
** JOB HUNTING: THE MOST UNWANTED JOB THERE IS **
Looking for a job – when done right – is harder than anything you will
be hired to do. There is absolutely no way around it. But it’s one
thing to dive into the business of networking and blasting off resumes
for a week and another thing to do it for three months or more. When
the hunt goes on for that span, it can mean the start of a downward
spiral: There’s no end to rejection letters – unlike your finances –
and you begin to feel yourself grinding out a cover letter wondering:
“Why bother? I’d be just as well off if I printed out my resume and
flung it in the general direction of the company I’m applying to.”
I’ve thought that plenty of times – never actually did it.
When that mentality takes hold, you tend to hunt for a job slower, and
your mental shape begins to crumble. If you don’t act, it will be
something recruiters and hiring managers will begin to notice. You
know you need to boost your confidence if you have any chance of not
just continuing the job search, but actually getting a job you want
and staying in good mental shape.
** GETTING BACK YOUR CONFIDENCE **
The key to maintaining confidence – and getting confidence back -
while job hunting is through accomplishment. Too many job hunters get
so mired in the repetition of networking, applying, interviewing, and
repeating the process that they forget they’re actually making
accomplishments. Put another way: when one feels the actions of one
day have no bearing on the next, confidence drops.
This - aside from financial reasons - is why people seek a career in
the first place; to feel they have accomplished “something.” Job
seekers have to be reminded that a rejection letter is an
accomplishment. A contact that turned up empty is an accomplishment. A
bad interview is an accomplishment. Everything that happens in a job
search is another pantleg full of dirt from the prison escape tunnel,
and while the digging is repetitive, the goal is inching closer.
Let’s say you got a rejection letter from a job you applied to. Think
back on your search, and ask yourself the following questions:
* Was my resume aimed for the job and in topnotch form?
* Was my cover letter tailored and concise?
* Did I have most – if not all – of the qualifications the
organization was after?
* Did I provide a little more than what they asked (i.e.- four
references instead of three, etc.)?
* Was I prepared and professional for the interview? (if you got
that far)
If you answered yes to all of the above questions, you can pat
yourself on the back: Congratulations, you’ve been rejected and you
don’t need to take it personally. The market is competitive, and you
simply weren’t picked because someone else was. That rejection letter
in your hand is progress and you should feel good about it; you’re
another foot further along in your tunnel to professional freedom.
Once you have changed the way you feel about rejection in your job
search, you can rearrange your job-hunting tasks - even the repetitive
ones – to be more meaningful. Here are a few ways to pull yourself
back into the ring.
* Maintain a Journal – "June 12: I take in the Jerry Springer show
after a strenuous morning of reading classified ads…." Not that kind
of journal. A simple three ring binder or spiral notebook will do –
one with a built-in calendar is best. Put a date on the top of a new
page, and make a list of phone calls you have to make that day, and
the companies/jobs you’ve applied to. If you keep yourself organized,
you probably won’t feel lost or adrift. It’s also good to keep the day
broken into bite-sized chunks so nothing feels too monotonous. When
you make your daily job hunting “to do” list, try to do a little more
each day. Everything crossed off on your list is an accomplishment.
* Rejection Rules – Never throw a rejection later away. Keep a
file of your rejection letters, and understand that the file may
become thicker than George Costanza’s wallet. Your goal is to be
rejected as often as possible. If you’re not being rejected at least
every day, you’re not making significant progress. And bear in mind
that it happens to absolutely everyone. I’ve actually become so good
at being rejected, I’m thinking of turning pro.
* Keep Yourself Busy – Make your daily and weekly 'to do' lists
ambitious, but not overwhelming. If you’re unemployed, it’s vital to
treat your job search like a full time job. Have your lunch breaks,
coffee breaks, and personal phone calls, and try to make your daily
lists a little longer each day. To hunt effectively, you must train as
a marathon runner – sprinting for one day usually spells exhaustion
for the next.
* Dig more than one tunnel at a time – This follows up perfectly
to the ‘keep yourself busy’ bullet: Sending out resumes blindly or
just answering classified adds is a mistake ONLY if that is all you
are doing to get a job. Statistically, it’s also the method that bears
the least amount of success. Work your contacts via phone, email, and
personal visits, stop into companies that interest you, go online, and
answer the classifieds. If you pursue every channel there is, your
chances of getting a job quicker go up drastically. If you get a
promising lead, DO NOT STOP LOOKING OR SLOW YOUR SEARCH! Even if it looks like a certain job is in the bag, crank your search up a gear. There is nothing that can throw one’s confidence down the drain faster than halting a search when you think an offer is imminent, only to
have it collapse – and you’ve done nothing while waiting for the
go-ahead that didn’t come.
* Recognize there is NO SHAME in being unemployed – This bears
repeating. When people ask what you do, don’t hang your head in
despair and mumble that you’re out of work, hit him or her with a
confident smile and tell them you’re between jobs, and are
aggressively searching for work in….fill in the blank….to be a….fill
in the blank. Who knows: the next person you meet at a cocktail party
or a backyard BBQ may be your most valuable contact. You should also
make a point on your “to do” list to tell someone every day – if you
can – that you’re unemployed.
* Get some physical exercise – Hitting the gym or just finding
some sort of workout routine can work wonders for your confidence
level; as in your physical appearance. It can also help work out your
aggressions and tensions about your job hunting journey. Try to eat
well, too, particularly if you’re spending time on the road searching
for work.
At the end of each day, you should feel good about yourself: you’ve
accomplished a lot of things. You’ll get more done tomorrow, the next
day, and the day after that. You will not be out of work forever, and
once you get a job, the frustration of being unemployed will quickly
drop from your shoulders like the albatross in Rhyme of the Ancient
Mariner.
There are also plenty of things you can do to maintain confidence that
aren’t listed here; you know things you can do to keep your confidence
and drive at the stratosphere. Whether it’s spending time with your
significant other, family, a certain quirky friend that always makes
you laugh; pepper your schedule with these things not just to help
your job search, but just on general principles.
Michael K. Norris is a freelance writer and researcher specializing in
recruitment, career, and other issues. He can be reached at
[email protected].