Even in a good job market, job search stress is big. Your job search is full of stressors: Is your resume any good? Will you get the interview? Why didn’t you get the interview? How did you do in the interview? Did you get the job? Why didn’t you get the job? Are you ever going to get hired? The possibilities for feeling anxious, overwhelmed, and rejected are endless…but here are 3 ways to end your job search stress and start feeling calm, cool, and collected.
Manage Your Time Wisely and Take Care of Yourself
Even though you always hear “Treat your job search like a job,” with advice to spend 8 hours a day on it, this isn’t what I recommend. Instead, spend maybe 5 hours a day in an active search. Spend the rest of your day enriching your life. Maybe now’s the time to finally get to the gym, spend some extra time with your friends or your family, take up a new hobby or a learn a new sport. Or, maybe this is your chance to take a class that will help you be stronger in your career.
When you’re actively job searching, make sure you’re getting movement in your day. Don’t spend the whole day looking at job listings or researching companies. Instead, be sure to send some emails or make some phone calls that get you in touch with people. Networking is powerful. Update your resume and send it directly to hiring managers.
Practice Positive Thinking
Positive thinking can be hard to do in a job search, but it’s critically important. Studies have shown that making the effort to be positive will help your job search. You’ll have better outcomes than if you get sucked into negativity.
Try approaching your job search like this: Imagine looking at a field of stones, and that one of those stones is a diamond. The diamond is yours, and all you have to do is find it. Chances are that every time you pick up a stone that isn’t the diamond, you’ll just toss it behind you and keep looking. No discouragement or feelings of failure. You might even think of ways to search smarter with tools, or get your friends and family to help you look.
So keep in mind that if a job isn’t for you, then it just isn’t for you. Your job is out there. Use tools to help you find it faster. Put your network on the task. Use the Hidden Jobs Finder to contact as many hiring managers as you can in as short a time as possible. These will keep your activity levels up which should also make it easier to stay happy and enthusiastic about your job search.
Check out this series on how to stop negative thinking and stay positive in your job search.
Take Actions that Make a Difference
Most people measure the effort level of their job search by the time they put into it. The trouble is that you can spend a lot of time in something but not make much of a difference in the outcome. So, I recommend that you evaluate all your actions based on the outcomes you get from them—and adjust accordingly.
If you aren’t getting interviews, you need to do 2 things. First, evaluate your resume to see if it markets you. Have you removed paragraphs, used bullet points, and quantified your accomplishments? When your resume is fixed, look at how you’re going after those interviews. Instead of spending hours applying for jobs online, find hiring managers and contact them directly. Not only will you get more interviews, you’ll uncover hidden jobs.
If you aren’t getting job offers from your interviews, don’t assume you aren’t good enough. Improve your interview performance. You can make a huge difference by creating and bringing a 30-60-90-day plan. You can also hire an interview coach to role play job interviews with you and improve your interview answers.
Whatever’s going on in your job search, remember that you have power and control over what happens and how you think about it. Keep yourself motivated on the daily with motivation quotes sent right to your phone and consider getting some job search tools or hiring a career coach for faster success.