8 signs that tell me you would sell your mother just to get a job
It’s a bit like dating. Looking desperate is not going to get you anywhere in your job search. When hiring professionals see or feel desperation in your eye, they question your motives and you lose credibility in an instant.
Sure, there is a correlation of a number of job applications and a number of interviews you land but what if you could get the ratio down to one interview per 5 or 6 applications? Or, even better, how about getting interviews without the desperate spray of bullets approach? I have 8 signs that tell me you’re desperate.
# 1 You’ve become an email-mobile and social media junkie
You actually don’t care anymore how many double-likes, re-tweets and shares and favourites you’ve received on your LinkedIn, Twitter, Instas and Facebook. You check your email 15+ times a day only to find nothing new or automated rejection letters from jobs you can’t even remember applying to three months ago.
# 2 You re-morphed back into a moody teenager
One morning you’re all chirpy, ready to absorb the sun shining through your window, optimistic about today’s job search and with the hope that you’ll finally get some feedback. Other days, you’re all zombie and you believe the sky will be as grey as your mood as you believe that you’ll probably be unemployed forever.
# 3 Your friends with jobs are no longer your favourites
The laments of your friends with 9-to-5s annoy you. Meanwhile, you sit fuming in the same desk chair you’ve been planted on while trolling Seek or LinkedIn, or the bed you’ve found yourself lying on exhausted after hours of fruitless job searching. It’s like when your friends who have new boy or girlfriends excessively tell you how in love they are while you have only the heat of your laptop to keep you warm at night.
# 4 You are ready to sell your mom
Dear Job Gods,
If you grant me employment with this company, I will sell my mom. I will deal with my flatmate, loud neighbour and more. I will downgrade my iPhone to a basic phone. I will go to the gym. I will exchange sex for a year in place of this job offer. I will even give up alcohol for … a month.
# 5 You’re the Postmaster General and you don’t care
Although you’ve read all the blogs, you don’t or forget to follow the advice. You’ve posted your resume on all of your social media accounts, maybe multiple times, practically begging for someone to reach out to you. You’ve abandoned the very last ounces of possible dignity and you aired all your jobless laundry to the world in hopes that a job elf with the power to grant you employment will extend their hand and pick you up off of the streets.
# 6 You’re starting to think that buying more lottery tickets makes sense
Ummm…. ya, great idea.
# 7 You’re days blur into one another
You’re no longer interested in people’s #tbt’s, convinced only minutes ago that it was Tuesday. The weekends lose most of their value because every day has a bit of languidness in your unemployed state. Too much freedom is not your thing. You’re kind of floating along until you find another main purpose to get out of bed…
# 8 As bad as it all is, you know you have to keep fighting
This unemployment might never end, and a job offer is a thing of fantasies, but you know, if you really give up you definitely will never get that big job title you’ve dreamed of, or that house, or even a basic income to support the family you want to have one day.
You have to have faith. I know it can be damn hard. While trying to scrounge together every Australian peso you have, you have to do the same with the last little crumbs of optimism you have in you.
If you are in this situation or afraid that may be where you’re headed, get some help from professionals like the guys at TheJobSearchCoach or, if you’re in the public sector, go to the guys at GovComGroup. Also, why not check out KickAss Alternatives like FOSSLR or 360 jobs. Remember, insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. (Albert Einstein)
If others before you can get a new job, then you can, too. And if that does not inspire you, seek out some positive success stories of people that were on struggle street but managed to move on and move up. They exist – plenty of them.
So, go back to your job search with a fresh outlook, think about getting some assistance, and always remember to hunt wisely!
Uli
Ps. Share this post if you have friends who are searching for work and encourage them to seek help or just never give up!
