The Psychological Challenge

Job hunting is taxing under any circumstances. But it is made more complicated by the
fact that it often occurs during a time in a person’s life when he or she is feeling anxious,
insecure, and vulnerable.

✔ Be patient with yourself. It is going to take some time to figure out what you want
and to feel comfortable promoting your strengths and (if necessary) discussing your
failures and weaknesses. Try to focus on the day-to-day activities rather than the
end goal and reward yourself (mentally) when you feel that you have implemented a
job search strategy or technique competently.

✔ The Premack Principle in psychology establishes a system of rewards by linking
unpleasant tasks to pleasant ones. To make use of this principle in your job search,
make certain to reward yourself by doing something that you like to do after you
have completed some arguably unpleasant job search task. For example, if you hate
to make phone calls but love to go outside and work in the garden, give yourself an
hour in the garden for every hour that you spend on the phone making networking
calls and setting up interviews.

✔ Learn from your mistakes. Job-hunting skills—like any other skills— require time
and practice. Rather than berating yourself every time you say or do something
wrong, try to look more objectively at what you might have said and done differently
so that you won’t make that particular mistake again.

✔ Don’t take silence or rejections personally. Job hunting, by its very nature, requires
that you suffer through narcissistic injuries on a weekly or even daily basis.
Although it may be difficult not to feel hurt when someone doesn’t call you back
immediately or offer you a job on the spot, it’s all part of the “game” of job hunting.
Like salespeople who learn to embrace the “no” because it brings them that
much closer to the big sale, try to cultivate an attitude of hope and optimism. As
psychologist Martin Seligman has noted, “Pessimists may be more realistic, but
optimists are more successful and have more fun.”

✔ You can’t change the big picture, but you can influence your individual situation.When you focus on the big picture—unemployment rates, labor statistics, and interest
rates—it’s easy to get overwhelmed by bad news over which you have no control.
What you can control is your individual situation. By focusing on the people
who you can influence, you regain a sense of confidence, self-esteem, and control
over your own destiny.

✔ Stay active and involved. Isolation and, by extension, desperation are anathema to
successful job hunting. Rather than bury your head in the sand or slink off into a
corner to hide in shame, push yourself to become social. Not only will this help
your networking efforts, it will also enable you to stay connected to people you care
about and those who care about you. Also, consider joining a support group of job
hunters who are grappling with similar experiences. That way you can support each
other during a period in your lives that may be more stressful than usual.