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11/09/2005: "How’s Your Job Search Energy?"

One of the biggest challenges of the job search is to sustain your energy for the search. Weeks can go by without visible results. As creatures who respond to positive reinforcement, these dead periods can make it very difficult to continue making an effort.

What are you doing to keep your job search energy up? This is the time to bring out all those stress relievers that have helped you in the past. Maintain a support system and have that system extend beyond your immediate family. Exercise, eat in a healthy way and avoid junk food. Don’t let your stress reliever become more a problem than the stress you are trying to relieve. In other words, while an occasional glass of wine or beer might be fine, don’t let alcohol get out of hand. Consider journaling as a stress reliever. Meditate or pray.

If your job search is stalled, go back to the beginning and reconnect with earlier networking contacts. Ask everyone you speak to for one or two names of others that you could talk to about your search. If you keep asking for more contacts, your network won’t dry up.

Attend a job club in your area. These are great for connecting with others and expanding your network. It also helps normalize your process – yes, you’re not the only one job searching! There are others and they would like to help you.

A job search can be depressing. It’s normal to feel angry, sad, depressed, unhappy but if you find you’re getting stuck in your emotions, it’s time for a change. See if you can set a timeframe for feeling bad – perhaps a couple hours and make a deal with yourself that once this time is up, you’ll quit the pity party. Take some positive actions. Action can be a great antidote to feeling badly.

I wish you an energetic job search!

P.S. I had to block comments to my blog because I was getting spammed by poker players and porno sites. If you have comments or questions, please write to me at gc@resumeswithspirit.com

Georgiana Carollus, M.A., CPRW
www.resumeswithspirit.com
630.654.8540