The irony of unemployment is that, sometimes, the longer you don’t have a job, the less motivated you feel to find one. It gets frustrating to keep up your spirits when it feels like you’re finding primarily rejection or closed doors. Try to keep this little sports metaphor in mind: If you keep shooting the ball, eventually one will go in the basket…but sometimes you need to change your approach to make it happen.
Consider this: If you’ve gone about your job search the same way every day and had few to no results, isn’t it time to do something new and different? Even though “your job is finding a job,” that can get tedious – and, in turn, you’re not truly helping yourself. So what can you do to find your motivation again…and keep it?
- Do what works for you.
The cookie-cutter approach is almost guaranteed to get you passed over. Yes, there are some areas of the job search that don’t allow for a lot of creativity, such as filling in an application, but what else can you do? Network like crazy – a majority of employers do hire someone they know/are familiar with, or based on a mutual acquaintance who can vouch for you. Keep your LinkedIn profile up-to-date, find people in your field you can talk to over a cup of coffee just to get information on the market, figure out a new way to “sell” yourself. It’s not ironic to think outside the box.
- Rethink your job search cues.
Don’t hem yourself in with certain job titles, either. You may think “project manager” isn’t for you, but what’s involved in the description? You may see that you’re a great fit, after all. Or if you’ve always looked in a certain field, consider what others might need your talents. If you’ve always gone for writing jobs, a number of corporate businesses and banks need writers for emails, brochures, other mailings…don’t think that certain kinds of companies aren’t for you. This is where working with a staffing agency like PrideStaff can help you – they can look at your experience and help come up with possibilities you never would have considered.
- Write down your goals.
Along the way, you may have lost sight of why you want a particular job or what you want from it. Take 10 minutes (with your staffing agent, if possible) to write down your three “must-haves,” whether it’s a certain salary, a flexible schedule, or upward mobility. Then come up with long-term and short-term goals. Your long-term goal may be, “I want to have a full-time job by October 1.” Then you set up short-term goals to get you there, either daily, weekly, or both. Write them down so you can actually cross them off – there’s something concrete about doing it on paper. Revisit them from time-to-time to make sure you’re still on the right path, and adjust as necessary.
Sometimes revamping your job search means just shifting your perspective a little, and you may surprise yourself by what you see. For help in finding that great next job, reach out to the experienced recruiters at PrideStaff Thousand Oaks.
