The job seeker and his discouraging circle

The job seeker and his discouraging circle

Let’s cut to the chase and avoid a needlessly wordy introduction. Those of us who have lost a job at any point in our life, know that such situation calls for practicality more than anything else. The Jobseeker Monitor brings you a list of five discouraging scenarios you may face and should try to avoid at all cost if you want to maintain the essential job-seeker spirit. It goes without saying that this is “our” list of sources of discourage. Although they may match your personal experience, you certainly can come up with a few others. Here they are:

1)      The Gratuitous Advisors. People love giving advice, as it appears we are doing with this list (but we are not), therefore, your partner, a family member, or a friend, may at any point feel free to let you know, whether implicitly of explicitly, that your method of looking for employment is not as effective as the one they have in mind. This occurs especially when you have been looking for a job for quite some time (whatever “quite some time” means for you and those near you). While one may tell you, “George, I think sending resumes through the Internet doesn’t work”, another may state the opposite. Whatever you do, do not suspend your own judgment.

2)      Whatever Comes Up. If you have been unsuccessfully looking for a job in your area of expertise, you will soon hear someone say that you should take whatever comes up and then later look for your ideal job. Well, that may be a feasible alternative if you are in a desperate situation, with bills piling and no savings. But if that is not your case, taking “whatever comes up” will only hurt your search for the job that suits your qualifications. Again, it depends on your level of urgency, but the point here is that whoever insists that you take this option is disregarding your goals and aspirations.

3)      The Anti-Ed Hammerers. Some may take the role of academic commentators and tell you that maybe you did not study “the right thing”. This is particularly hurtful if you spent a few years in college and majored in something you like. Just for the sake of argument, let’s say you are a librarian. Your brother is a successful computer engineer, who has a well-paid job, has been working for many years and has no fear of instability because he is in a field with increasing demand for his type of expertise. Well, you know where this is going. Someone within your social circle will take the liberty of question the reason why you did not major in computer science. And, sure, that is the type of comment you need when you are devastated and feeling, at least momentarily, that you are somehow failing.

4)      Look at Him. This one is deeply connected to number 3 above. If you are still looking for a job after a couple of months, while Bill was able to land at his ideal position after just two weeks of unemployment, you will soon hear some voices (no, you’re not imagining them) state, “look, Bill’s got a job already, there must be something you are doing wrong”, or maybe, “are you sure you are trying your best?

5)      Your Inner Self. No, we are not going to quote Swiss psychiatrist Carl G. Jung. However, regardless of how much criticism you receive from your social circle, remember that no one but you knows what your qualifications, desires and goals are. If you let others dictate what you must do or how you must feel, you may not be able to get the job you want, or even worse, you may not be able to get the life you want.

We cannot automatically assume, however, that there is a person who faces all these types of criticism at the same time or that is surrounded by a large number of family members and friends who lack good intentions. In many cases, these instances of criticism come from well intentioned fellows who misspeak, as we all have done more than once. The essence of this brief list can be summarized as follows: focus and act, and silence the critics with your success.

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