Estimated reading time: 3 mins
At some point in our adult lives, most of us find ourselves looking for work. You might struggle to find your first job after school, finding it hard to find the right position with no experience. You might have a hard time finding a job in a new industry when all of your experience and qualifications relate to a different sector. You might just find that the gap between one position and the next is longer than you would like it to be and that your time in unemployment has started to drag on.
When this happens, you can start to feel desperate. Every application you send off is either rejected, or you never hear back at all, which is almost more upsetting. You aren’t getting any feedback, or ideas on what to do better, and you can’t even get an interview to try and sell yourself. Money might be tight, the bills don’t stop coming in, and it’s easy to start to feel useless, upset, angry, frustrated and even depressed. But you must stay positive. A positive attitude will keep you going and help you to make a good impression when you do get that all-important interview.
Do Your Research
If it’s been a while, and you aren’t getting anywhere, do some research to try to find out why. Research the job market, look at who is hiring, read job descriptions and learn more about the companies that you are applying to work for. Diverse Employment’s Guide To Job Hunting can give you some extra tips. Try to use all of this information to your advantage, and sell employers the person that they want to hire.
Try Something New
Have you been emailing in CVs or applying in person? Are you asking to speak to a manager and asking questions about the position? Do you present yourself well? Whatever you have been doing, if it’s not working, try something different. At this point, what have you got to lose?
Keep Looking After Yourself
When your mood is low, it’s easy to start letting things go. You might not be exercising or eating well. You may have stopped spending time with your friends, or doing the things that you used to love. You might not be making an effort with your appearance. None of this will help. It won’t make you attractive to employers, and it will only make you feel worse. To keep your mood up, you need to take care of yourself. Eat well, exercise, see people that make you happy, and try to stick to a regular routine, getting up early, getting dressed and going about your day with structure.
Forget What You Can’t Control
You can’t control everything about your job search. You can’t force people to employ you, and you can’t do anything about those jobs that you haven’t got. So, stop worrying. Don’t waste your energy giving time to things that you can’t control.
And Focus on What You Can
Instead, focus on what you can control. Look at your CV, adding key skills and trying to make it more appealing. Take a free course which could help your search. Ask for help from a careers advisor. Do what you can, forget the rest.
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