Job-hunting will take longer than you would like. The culprit is not necessarily you, but the current recruitment system that is flawed. With the advent of job boards, your competition has increased a thousand-fold, as it is so easy for anyone to apply for a job. Employers are also automating the recruitment process, which is why it is so impersonal and harder to succeed. In fact, SEEK noted that 75% of Australians who are currently searching for a new job, have been looking for up to six months.

In order to not only survive a job search, but also have a successful job search, you need the right headspace.

Understand that job hunting is not always easy

When you start a job-search process, you must embrace two key facts about the job-search process:

• It is not always the best qualified who will win the position.
• Rejection, or not hearing back from recruiters and employers is a fact of life and will happen dozens if not hundreds of times.

Once you accept the system is broken and that the overwhelming majority of job seekers will encounter barriers, then you will be less likely to take it personally. Not taking it personally can be difficult, but if you detach yourself from the emotion of the process, you will understand that rejection is just part and parcel of the job-search process and not wallow in self-pity.

If we are honest with ourselves, fear can be a constant companion during a job search. It’s natural when you think about it, as so much can ride on a successful job search, in particular if your current work is untenable, or you are unemployed. So many questions: How are you going to pay the bills? What if I never secure a great job? What if they don’t like me? What do I do, if I stuff up the interview? Am I considered too old, too young? How does my application stack up against others?

It is really easy to let our mind run rampant and live a life filled with fear. This of course can be exhausting, as a job hunt can be stressful enough as it is, without inviting doom and disaster.

Fear can also erode your sense of confidence and I strongly believe that employers can smell fear, and this in turn will diminish any confidence they may have in you and what you can offer them. [Read more…]

If you read a couple of career blogs, they generally talk about having to do lots of networking to propel your career.  Now I personally don’t like traditional networking, so I’m probably not the person to preach whether you should network or not. 

What I do know is that traditional networking, that is going to events and feeling like everyone is in a big race to see if they can hand out business cards and talk about themselves, just does not work.

I personally like to get to know people.

I’m not interested in superficial relationships.

I’m not interested in only building relationships to get ahead, as these tend to be one-sided and selfish relationships. [Read more…]