Una's Blog

21
Mar

12 You don’t have to sell yourself short just because job hunting is a pain

graphic-4by Una Hearne.

Job hunting is a drain on all of your resources, financial, physical, mental and emotional and is only rewarding at the very end of the process. Added to which, you worry throughout that it will end in failure, which saps even more energy.

Some people give up. This pretty much guarantees no job. Not a great strategy, however understandable.

Some keep going until they find a job they like and can settle into for a few months or years. This is a good strategy, this works.

Others take the first job they’re offered and hold onto it like grim death. Sometimes that works out. Sometimes it really doesn’t.

I have watched a few great people do this recently. So demoralised by the job hunt that they take and hold onto a bad job for too long instead of treating it as a stepping stone to a better job. Don’t get me wrong, they took the jobs for the right reasons – to pay the mortgage and bills – all good. But, instead of continuing with the job hunt, they resigned themselves to being miserable for the next few years.

The somehow decided that this is the  only job they could get. They have done a few interviews, this is the first job they got and they stopped looking. So of course there is no evidence that they could get a better one. Even though their CV is up to date and they have gained experience with applications and interviews which is clearly beginning to pay off, they tell themselves the story that this is the only job available to them. Why?

I think it is just because it seems easier at this point, when all you want is never to do another job application, networking meeting or interview as long as you live. There is just one tiny problem with this (very understandable) choice. It’s your life, your future, your happiness you are making choices for. What is your future worth to you? How much effort are you willing to put into your happiness?

If you think about the medium to long term which is actually less painful? Continuing the job hunt now to get a job you will be happy in for years, or staying in a miserable job to avoid any more job hunting? Just saying…


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