Being out of work for an extended period can be difficult. Without a job to keep you occupied, your routine can start to come undone, leading to feelings of worthlessness. Added to that is the exhausting ordeal of job hunting, which for obvious reasons can take up the majority of your time.
Spending a long period of time searching for the right position can easily get the better of people as constant rejection may get you down and demotivate you. Despite that, a period of job hunting doesn’t have to be that bad, as there are steps and measures you can take to not only improve your chances of finding employment but also make the process a lot easier. Here are some things to help make job hunting that little bit easier.
Don’t Rush
Once they find themselves out of work, many people get panicked by the prospect of no income and end up rushing into applications and applying for as many different roles as they can. This scattergun approach isn’t the best way to go about things and can in fact contribute to a lack of success.
It’s vital to take your time when searching and applying for jobs and to really engage with the job description. You first want to evaluate if your experience and skills match the job, and then decide if the role is something you actually want to do. Being more measured and only applying to roles that suit you well will make you far more composed and will also give you more time to create a cracking application.
It’s best not to apply to more than two jobs a day, as doing this will ensure that you have enough time to create a robust application. Going for more than this means you run the risk of rushing your applications, which can result in less quality — and potentially fatal mistakes — which can pretty much guarantee rejection.
Also, applying to a billion and one jobs and then getting rejected can affect your confidence and bring you down. This will negatively impact your job searching performance and could persuade you to go for a job that you shouldn’t.
Take your time, apply only for the most relevant roles to you, and don’t rush your applications and cover letters.
Do Other Things
When you’re unemployed, it can feel likeyou’re required to job search constantly with little break. This simply isn’t true, as constantly scouring multiple job boards and the like isn’t sustainable and will lead to burnout and make you unmotivated to search.
It’s important to still remember to enjoy life and have your own free time when you’re out of work. Create a schedule and try to mirror an average working day as much as you can. Allocate a defined timeframe where you look for work, write applications, and contact recruitment agencies, and then give yourself enough time to relax and socialize.
Another good thing you can do is to add other tasks into that work schedule. There’ll be times where you just won’t have enough to do to fill up this schedule, so instead, you can spend the time researching and learning new skills to make yourself more employable and well rounded. For instance, you can learn new skills through courses on Skillshare, or you could work on improving your academic qualifications at home online, such as a Master of Business Administration at one of the top universities in the world.
Also, don’t forget your hobbies. You don’t have to be improving yourself constantly while out of work. Doing what you love can really help boost your mental health when you take the time to engage in your interests. And having a good attitude goes a long way toward presenting yourself well in an interview.
Mentally Prepare for Rejection
Rejection is hard to take; however, when searching for jobs, you’re going to face rejection far more than you’re going to get accepted — that’s just part of the process. It’s important to learn resilience and mentally toughen yourself so that these rejections aren’t too much of a setback. It’s vital to remember that rejection isn’t a step backwards as you’re not in any worse position than when you started the job searching process.
If you can, learn from your rejections. Not every employer will do this, but sometimes you can ask for feedback about why you didn’t get the job. You can then take that feedback on board and strengthen your next application. Learning from rejections means you can become a better candidate in the future.
Of course, not getting the job that you were set on, or going through three stages of recruitment to ultimately fall short can feel slightly devastating. To ensure that this doesn’t knock your confidence too much, surround yourself with supportive people who can remind you of your skills and your credentials, and if you really cannot deal with rejection, then stop applying to roles where you don’t fully match the desired skills.
Build the Best CV
Your CV is so important in job searching, as it’s one of the first things a potential employer will see. Therefore, it’s vital that you put the appropriate effort into it so that you’re well represented within the document.
To build a good CV, first, you should list out every single thing you’ve done that’s work-related. This includes past positions, but also any part-time roles, temporary jobs, unpaid posts, and work placements. After that, list out all the skills that these roles will have taught you, what sectors you’re experienced in, as well as all your achievements (these can be personal, business-related, or both.) Once that’s complete, consider any volunteering you’ve done, what qualifications you’ve received, as well as the activities you do outside work.
Doing this should help you generate a lot of material and information about yourself, perhaps too much to fit into a desired double-sided CV. What you can do from this is then pick and choose the most relevant stuff for each role you’re applying for to ensure that you have a well-tailored and optimized CV for every position.
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