6 Tips For Staying Resilient In Your Job Search

Vanessa Flores -

Many factors can interfere with our job search. Some are out of our control - like a company removing a job listing we’ve applied to due to new budget constraints. Then, there are other factors we can control. It’s not easy, but we can improve our skills to gain more experience, or reach out to people to grow our connections. Beyond the obvious though, lies something we don’t typically think of and that is our mindset during our job search. Changing our mindset can help us stay resilient.

When we take on the challenges of a job search, we’re undoubtedly going to run into discouraging situations. People might ignore or deny our attempts to connect with them. Our applications might be rejected without the opportunity for even a phone screen. Maybe we didn’t receive the best feedback from a coding exercise. At any of these points, we have the option to allow negative thoughts and self-doubt to creep in, or we can shift our focus and think about our situation more constructively.

In this article, you’ll find 6 ways that will help you stay resilient in your job search. They won’t all apply at the same time. Depending on which stage you are in during your job search, some tips might resonate a little more than others, but they are good tips to keep in mind overall.

1. Get adequate sleep, stay physically active, and eat healthy.

As full-time, or sometimes even part-time, job seekers, we don’t always stick to a routine that ensures the healthy habit of getting 7-8 hours of sleep every night. The thing is, when we’re short on sleep it’s easier for depression and anxiety to kick in. When depression and anxiety start to get a hold of us,  we start to focus more on what’s going wrong in our lives and our job search. Our frustration builds up and self-doubt increases as well. Getting on a better sleep schedule or even incorporating naps into our day can help us feel better, less depressed, and more upbeat.

Getting out of the house for daily walks, whether or not it’s to walk a pet, can uplift our mood as well and help burn off some of that anxious energy before a phone screen or interview. So get out, grab some sun and look at some trees. Maybe do some more intensive exercise to help channel any frustrations.

Hydration levels also affect our mood, so it’s important to make sure we’re staying hydrated and limiting the sugary drinks as much as possible. Speaking of sugar, this is the opportunity to start incorporating healthier meals into our diet. A drastic change in diet isn’t necessary. The more we throw healthy food into the mix, the more our body is going to crave it - reducing the junk food withdrawal we experience when making changes to our diet.

2. Treat yourself kindly.

We’re not going to crush every interview we have. There are going to be times when someone else is more skilled than we are and gets the job instead of us. In times like these, and always really, it’s important to practice self-compassion. After interviews, instead of beating ourselves up for what we think we did wrong let’s take notes on all the things we did right. Maybe we made it one step further in the interview process or were more confident in our answers when speaking to the hiring manager. Maybe we weren’t as nervous during our phone screen and rambled less. It’s still important, though, to jot down areas of improvement for next time.

It’s also good to remember to treat ourselves during our job search. We can go on mini-adventures. We don’t have to spend money - we can take a break from our search and go to the beach or park. Maybe explore your city the way a tourist would.

3. Reflect on your behavior.

As easy as it is to be pessimistic about how our job search isn’t going well, we can choose to be optimistic and turn things around. Things not going well is an opportunity to make changes to our strategy to help them go right. We have the power to change our situation. We can start by recognizing what roadblocks we keep running into and taking action to overcome them.

For example, if we’re struggling to land a phone screen after filling out a dozen job applications, maybe it’s time to change our approach and try to connect with someone at the company without the intention of trying to get them to pass our resume along. This is an opportunity to build rapport with someone. Alternatively, we can take another look at our LinkedIn profile and see where we can make improvements. Our actions and our job search strategy matter - so keep making improvements.

4. Envision your dream job.

Taking some time to meditate and/or journal about our ideal work environment and our future in general, can help keep us motivated and focused. Images inspire action. Maybe while doing some vision work we can create a vision board to reflect what it is we are looking for in both our job and our lifestyle.

Envisioning our ideal job pays off in two ways.1 - it gives us ideas on what questions to ask throughout the job interview process. Good employers appreciate when candidates interview them back. It shows they’ve taken the time to figure out what they’re looking for, so when they find it, they’re more likely to stick around when they’re hired. And 2 - it’s a good reminder of what’s important to us so we don’t settle when we start to feel desperate. The last thing we want to do is settle for a toxic work environment because it feels like we won’t get hired anywhere else. It can be detrimental to both our mental health and our professional growth. Knowing what we want helps us stay resilient.

5. Set achievable goals that get you one step closer to your dream job.

One way to help us stay focused after doing our vision work is to keep setting meaningful goals that are going to help us get the job we’re looking for. It’s a good idea to keep the goals small. For example, add 5 more companies that seem like places we’d like to work at to our companies list today. Or send out 2 requests for informational interviews to people at companies we know we’re interested in. As soon as we accomplish these tasks, cross them off today’s to-do list, then plan tomorrow’s.

Speaking of to-do lists as part of our job search strategy, it’s important to be reasonable with what we’re adding to our list. Think about how long it takes us to accomplish a particular task and time-block that task. We don’t want to add items just because we know we’re going to have to do them at some point. Our list will get long and cause us to get overwhelmed quickly.

6. Keep learning something new and explore your inner child.

Most of us learned to ignore the interests we had as a child. Maybe there was an activity we enjoyed doing or a dream job that we deemed impractical as we got older. It’s important to take some time away from our job search so we can come back to it refreshed and energized to keep going. Exploring hobbies or learning something new can have multiple positive effects.

Taking a break helps with our mental health. Exploring hobbies and interests can help us learn something new about ourselves and grow. It can also give us something to talk about during interviews that will help potential coworkers find commonalities that will excite them to work with us.

Final Suggestions

If at any point you find yourself procrastinating, as it happens to all of us, take a moment to find out why. This is a good opportunity to write down any thoughts that come up. The more important something is to us, such as our dream job, the more our minds resist it. We start feeling like we’re not ready yet and need to keep learning. Maybe we’ll get rejected and ruin our chances of working there in the future. Throughout your job search, take note of any triggers that might pull you off track. What’s distracting you and what can you do to decrease those doubts and distractions? Journaling through these thoughts and addressing them will strengthen your resiliency.

For tips on how to strategize your job search, check out my article Strategizing a Successful Job Search.