The cycle of the job search is a vicious one. Here’s how it works for many people.
Search For A Job – Get Rejected – Lose Self-Esteem
Once this cycle repeats itself a few times, you might find yourself in a position where your confidence is drained. Now, without even realizing it, everything you do isn’t as good as it should be.
You need confidence in order to get a job. The way in which you carry yourself will come across in your writing when you’re doing your resume and cover letter. It’s even more important when you get to the interview phase, where you’ll be judged on body language and your tone of voice. Employers are looking to hire someone who is proactive and capable of the task at hand. If you’re losing confident about your own abilities, why would they show any confidence in you?
So, something needs to be done. Here are a few tips and tricks to help you if you’ve found yourself in this position.
Start Focusing On Quality Over Quantity
When people find themselves getting rejected from jobs, they often start getting disillusioned. It sucks that you might spend three hours on a covering letter, only to get a generic email of rejection. But, it’s important to keep up that level of quality. If you’re just sending basic applications to every job you can find, you’re not going to get what you want. It’s a path to more rejections and greater losses to your self-esteem.
Focus on a few companies or specific job descriptions that match as closely to your current experience or something that you are passionate about. Before applying to these jobs make sure you spend enough time tailoring your resume to the specific job description. the more prepared you are before applying the more are the chances of you going forward to the next steps.
Build a Winner’s Mindset
Failures give way to success only when you learn from what went wrong and what you need to do to get it right. Action is key to success but before that a strong mindset and focus toward success is essential. Do you remember a when you felt confident and in control? Take a minute to think back to how confident you felt and what made you feel so. What was it about that situation that made you feel so positive? Now, recreate those steps. Whatever you did to put yourself in that position, do it again. Sometimes, all it takes a quick refresher to boost your mindset. And when you find it difficult to do so on your own, just take a break from the job search and do something that rejuvenates you. You cannot expect different result if you continue to do the same thing over and over again, a change helps. Make the most of it to get your confidence back and jump back to your job search with a new enthusiasm and can-do spirit.
Prepare & Practice
All positive and ready to take on the challenge? Start well with a strong emphasis on preparing and practicing well. Job applications aren’t easy. Job interviews aren’t easy, either. You aren’t going to be all that good at either of them when you’re first starting out. It’s going to take time and the only way to give yourself the best possible chance is to prepare and practice. Prepare by researching the role and the company. Find out the best questions to ask in an interview, and equip yourself with the right attire for the day. Then, put what you’ve learned into practice, and use your mistakes as a valuable learning tool for the future. Use help from friends or family or career coaches who can guide you to perform your best.
YouTube is a great retarget to get some guidance from experts or mockup interview sessions.
Be Authentic
I’m not saying you should go into the interview spouting swear words and wearing a hoodie! But, don’t mold yourself to fit the perception of what you think the company wants out of you. Pretending you’re something you’re not isn’t going to make you feel confident at all. And, if you’re lucky enough to get the job, you’re going to have even bigger problems to deal with later on. Be yourself, and you’ll find that confidence will naturally begin to shine through. Genuine interest and passion in a job comes through the interview process. The more authentic, passionate and enthusiastic you are about the open position the more appealing you would be to the interviewer and the employer.