How to Avoid Job hunter Burnout
In a job hunting space as fast-paced as the online and mobile job ad world, you know there are many tasks you ‘should’ perform to reach more employers with your quest for a new job.
In order to seize good job opportunities, you have to stay ahead of the game with relentless focus. When it comes to job hunting, there is pressure and also stress to get everything right. If you feel a little frazzled by all of your job hunting tasks, here are five ways to keep your cool and stay on track to secure your goals.
How to Avoid Job hunter Burnout
1. Don’t lose sleep over missed opportunities
There was no ‘one’ chance and no ‘one’ hit that defines our careers and no ‘one’ opportunity that would make or break any one of us. I believe and always firmly recommend to all my clients that only persistence will secure you a new job.
I’ve experienced it first-hand myself and nearly every week with our clients, that nine times out of ten you can make a comeback. If a door closes, there might be another way in, or you might find a new opportunity somewhere else. The key learning is that there is no one opportunity.
So if you miss out on something, don’t worry. Keep searching and applying, taking action, and looking out for your next chance.
2. Step away from your gadgets
There is a common obsession with the idea that job success online happens quickly. Even though news of a new job posting can spread in seconds online, being considered and getting interviews is a different story.
If you’ve been writing lots of applications without seeing the results you want, you may have not addressed the key requirements that are important to the hiring manager or you may be overlooking important information in the job ads.
You may need to spend a little more time to fine-tune your application tools. You may even need to find ways to acquire new skills and search techniques to ensure your applications stand out and attract employers.
But before you plough into another task, consider bookmarking it and spend time away from the internet.
Find local Meetup Groups or networking events and talk to successful job hunters or coaches. Ask them how they got started, how quickly they managed to get interviews, and how they secured a job. Networking and communicating in the ‘real world’ with job hunters and career changers, and their mentors and coaches, who have achieved real results can be a great source of comfort and inspiration to get you back on track.
3. Distinguish between a lesson and a distraction
If you primarily apply for jobs online, you likely also spend a lot of time online. This means you probably find a tonne of jobs from your favourite jobsite before you even finish your morning coffee. That includes your daily LinkedIn fix.
While it’s important to stay current with the latest job opportunities, too many distractions can impede your job hunting productivity. How do you find a balance?
I have a simple technique. If you want to learn more about a topic or have a job hunting idea that you want to explore further, write it down, forget about it, and get back to work. When I had a job hunting idea during my days as a job hunter before I adopted this method, I’d hit the Internet to investigate and fall down a rabbit hole for a good 15–20 minutes. Don’t do that!
With this simple technique, you just have to review your list at the end of the day, schedule new tasks that are worth your time, and scrap trivial items that are not relevant to your employment goals.
I often found that a lot of my online discoveries and the ideas that came with it wouldn’t actually move me closer to what I wanted. They were distractions, not lessons, and certainly not solutions.
In addition to a productivity boost, you also reduce the stress from having all of those ideas swirling around in your head.
4. Keep calm and soldier on, despite the bad news
Criticism or negative feedback tends to escalates pressure. Just as talent judges can reduce great contestants to tears, an automated email saying you were unsuccessful or recruiters who ignore your requests for feedback can have you doubting yourself in no time.
At some point, someone out there in the recruiting world is going to hate that you keep applying. If you’re not careful, negative feedback can seriously dent your confidence and affect your job search motivation. From then on, you might be tempted to play it safe.
But if this does happen, you can use it to your advantage.
Negative feedback or criticism is an opportunity to learn. Even if the little feedback you get is poor, consider if there is any merit to the feedback. If so, you get to make a change and improve your job applications. Applicant: 1, critic: 0.
Also, always remember that there are choices and alternatives to the standard job sites, such as FOSSLR, which empowers the job hunter and provides feedback and rewards those who matter the most – job hunters and referrers.
5. Produce and submit one application at a time
It’s easy to feel intimidated by all that online advice that seems to have a never-ending archive of valuable insights and tips.
But those archives weren’t created overnight; they were built on one piece of high-quality content at a time.
You don’t have to write an application every day — just find a way to keep showing up with your applications. Remember, even if your application doesn’t immediately result in an invitation for an interview, good applications and well managed job hunter profiles with relevant information never go to waste. You can actually create leads if you do it right. We would be happy to show you how.
Each time you think about the hiring manager or recruiter while preparing your application, you fine-tune your skills, improve productivity, and build your authority as a successful job hunter.
You can do it, and it doesn’t have to make you crazy as long as you remember to hunt wisely!
Uli
PS
What habits help you prevent burnout?
Do you have ways to deal with dips in job hunting productivity?
Don’t be shy — share your tips in the comments section of this blog posts.