Do you have job search fatigue?

Do you have job search fatigue? The never ending cover letter crafting, resume tailoring, networking reach outs… not to mention the emotional roller coaster attached to the whole process. It’s exhausting! 

Well, it doesn't have to be. When you have clarity on what you want, what you truly want in your next role, you can take a more targeted and deliberate approach to your job search, with better results. 

Recently one of our Propeller Experience program clients told me that looking for a job was a full time job in itself. Scouring the internet looking for roles that she could, should do or was qualified for. She found many to apply for, and she did. 

The jobs themselves though didn’t really spark interest or joy, pay as much as she’d like, or really compliment her strengths. 

But she continued to fire off resumes and send them into the resume black hole… further eroding her confidence. It had become an exhausting cycle. Applying for jobs she wasn’t really excited about, not hearing back and then believing she wasn’t even good enough for the jobs she didn’t really want in the first place… 

When she joined our program and we started working together, we took a pause on the job search and rewound back to the question we pose to everyone when we first start. What do you want? What do you truly want? 

Not what do you think you should want, not what do you think you could get in the job market right now, not I’ll take anything that is better than what I have right now… but what do you want? 

Having that clarity on what you want, gives you clear direction, an end goal, and it streamlines the job search process. Making every cover letter your write, every resume you tailor and every networking reach out, intentional and calculated. Each one will take more time but you will do far less because you know what you want and where you are headed. 

Imagine you walk out your front door. If you don’t know where you are headed, you get stuck in place. Or worse, you start moving but with no clear direction and at some point you might realize you’re far away from what it is (where it is) that you want to be. When you have clarity, when you have a destination, which means you have direction. 

To help you find direction and streamline your job search process, we recommend: 

1. Taking a pause from your job search. When we feel fatigued, overwhelmed or anxious it is really hard to think creatively and that is what we’re going to ask you to do next! 
2. Dream. If anything is possible, what do you want? Your subconscious is going to try to sneak in and tell you all the reasons you can’t have or don’t deserve what you want.. Tell them thank you and you will address their concerns later but for now, you’re just dreaming. Write it down. 
3. Now, highlight the top three things you want in your next role and when you’re scrolling, if the job doesn’t meet that criteria, don’t spend time writing your cover letter, tailoring your resume, reaching out to network… move on until you find the role that does meet your criteria. Spend your time there. 

What you want in your next career move is possible. You can be what you want, do what you want, and have what you want. It all begins with understanding what it is that you want! Identify your destination my friends and the direction will become clear.