This year has been a rollercoaster of lessons learned, disappointments, triumphs, loses and most recently incredible victories. Now that my job hunt has come to a temporary end, I am so excited to share the tips I have learned along the way and am still learning.
I don’t know anyone who enjoys job hunting. Constantly tweaking your resumes, crafting cover letters, updating job board profiles, emailing, studying, networking, basically living and breathing job hunting is the last thing anyone wants to do – that and moving. However, there are a few things you can do to make looking for work bearable and maintain motivation. Take a look at the five tips below to make job hunting suck less.
1. Make it a Game
How many applications can you get in by Friday? How many resumes can you send out by the end of the day? Challenging yourself and setting task based deadlines will create a game like urgency to your search. Competing against yourself by setting new goals every week is a slightly fun way of shaking things up. Job hunting is a little soul-sucking; changing your approach will break up the monotony.
2. Partner With a Friend
Looking for work is infinitely more enjoyable when done with a friend. One of my best friend’s and I created a private Facebook group to motivate our search and encourage each other. We posted job listings, general tips, updates and inspirational photos. Creating that job hunting group instantly set a positive, exciting tone to our search.
3. Stay Up to Date With Notifications
Creating notifications through job boards is by far my most helpful tip. You won’t always have time to scroll through pages of positions, but having sites like Indeed or Linkedin search for you takes the edge off. You’ll be checking your email multiple times a day so whenever you get a fresh list of suggested jobs take five minutes to review them and save your favs. Most importantly go back and apply to your saved posts!
4. Stay Busy (Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket)
The worst part of job hunting is the waterboard torture of waiting. Stay so busy applying to jobs that you almost forget about the positions you’re waiting to hear about. Stay up to date enough to follow up but know that the more jobs you apply to the greater your chances are of receiving feedback. Stay busy in other areas of your life as well. Continue to build up your hobbies/passions and relationships. Stay balanced and the job hunting anxiety will lessen greatly.
5. Eat and Sleep Well
Looking for work can be exhausting, almost as exhausting as starting a new job. Just like new jobs you need to be on your game and that means taking care of yourself; getting adequate rest and eating energy fueling foods. If you’ve been looking for an extended period of time, job hunting can be an emotional and stressful process. It’s easy to feel defeated and hopeless so set yourself up for success!
So there you go, I hope these tips prove helpful in your search! When it gets a bit rough remember the road to success is always bumpy. You have worked before and you will work again. Go get a job gurl!
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