You may be in a job you don’t want or you may be unemployed and desperately wanting a job. Either way, job hunting is a thankless, tough task that can take ages. Staying positive is essential to your success and good for your sanity and your relationships!
You need to wake up every morning and believe that that day may be the day that you get that interview, offered that job, or begin your new career. Much is written about the power of positive thinking – because it’s true. Believe it’s possible and it becomes so – be negative and what you say and think will become your reality.
Staying positive is not easy. Battle through – and here are a few types to help:
1. Concentrate on the good things.
Job hunting can include a series of rejection and non-responses. It may cause you to question your ability and this can shake your confidence. Concentrate on what you have achieved in your personal and professional life and why this makes you an asset to an employer.
2. Identify the problem – then fix it.
Work out what part of job hunting is causing the most problems and stress. Maybe you feel that your CV is not up to scratch, or your interview technique needs work. In that case get objective feedback on your CV and rewrite it if necessary. Work on your interview technique with a coach. Prepare for all the obvious interview questions. .
3. Find purpose – and make that more than a pay cheque – (although that is obviously important!)
Try and see finding a new job as a great opportunity for your career. Remember why you are doing it and consider “the next job” as a new chapter in your life.
4. See setbacks as what they – part of the process, not an event or an end destination
When dealing with setbacks you should consider job hunting as a process with ups and downs, hills and valleys. Bad days are not the end – they come with the territory. See interviews and applications and writing bespoke CVs and covering letters as a routine step towards your new job. You will make mistakes and you won’t be perfect every time – you are human. Get over it. But the process of job hunting will go on. See a failed interview as an opportunity to learn, to develop, to improve. Consider the things that went well and what went wrong – polish and improve an rehearse the former and fix the latter.
5. Do something job-search related every day.
Do something every day, even just one thing, that will help your search – get feedback, hire a coach, read industry content, sending CV’s, research your target company, network.
6. Do something physical and something with your loved ones every day.
The one keeps you sane and healthy and helps you declutter and decobweb your head. The other should remind you why you are doing this – apart from the obvious hunger in your tummy and the nasty letters from the landlord! I have been there myself and getting fresh air and exercise gets the heart and the blood moving, takes you away from the computer screen or the TV, gets you showered and dressed and alive again. When you spend time with friends and family don’t focus on you and don’t talk endlessly about the job hunt. Focus on them – no moping and complaining please otherwise you will enter a cycle of negativity and be dull, boring company.
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