Expanding Your Job-Seeking Bandwidth

A dear friend in my network used to work at the domestic violence hotline, helping individuals do something called safety plan. This plan could mean leaving a dangerous situation, but more often than not, it meant changing small things within their day so they could have the mental bandwidth to make progressively better decisions for themselves. See, when someone is in trauma (be it an abusive partner or an abusive system), the part of our brain that makes decisions gets overwhelmed with fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses. Even simple choices becomes difficult.

If you're a job seeker, your brain may very well be struggling in a similar matter, especially if you're unemployed, attempting to get away from a toxic work environment, etc. And if we're being honest, Covid19 has been a massively traumatic experience for many individuals, which is likely affecting your search in ways you may not realize. Job seeking burnout is very real even without these additional stressors. Here are some changes you can make to hopefully expand your bandwidth as you search for your next opportunity:

Join your Buy Nothing Group

The Buy Nothing Project seeks to build community by creating a space in which people may give, receive, share, lend, and express gratitude through a worldwide network of hyper-local gift economies. "Gifts" could be something material, a service, talent, or time. They tend to function through Facebook groups and are based on geography, so you'd interact with your neighbors.

In my Buy Nothing Group, I have received groceries when my paycheck didn't extend as far as I needed it to, and my daughter has had new clothes for every growth spurt. I've seen people ask for rides to interviews, borrow suits, review resumes, get computer hardware when theirs died. I've given surplus produce from my garden, herbalist advice, crafting supplies, all sorts of things. My Buy Nothing Group has restored my faith in community support and reaffirmed my desire to live from a perspective of abundance. I'm not sure how easily I would have reached out to strangers on LinkedIn had my group not already built me up to believe people genuinely want to help one another.

Join yours. Be brave, ask for what you need and want, and receive with grace.

Front Load What Work You Can

My stress and anxiety spread when I feel put on the spot and don't know my answer, so I've found it helpful to plan a framework for what I'd like to say in various situations. You can't plan for everything, but regardless of the industry, job hunting has some constants: rejections, cover letters, resumes, salary expectation questions, interview questions, etc.

Decide now how you'd like to

• present yourself in a cover letter
• address a rejection from a form letter (I've chosen to ignore robot rejections.)
• respond to a rejection after you've made contact with an individual
• answer salary expectation questions
• thank individuals for an interview

You don't have to figure all of these out in one go. But recreating the wheel every time you apply to an opening, reach out to a network connection, or respond to an email can be taxing. When something you've written has had results, save it so you can revise and reuse it in future scenarios.

This is not to say you should copy and paste all your responses, but already having a template you can customize will ease your cognitive load to focus on other things. Here's an individual whose advice I've found very helpful when crafting/revising my responses.

Invest in the Most Effective Efforts

I have made the mistake of only interacting with robots, putting my application into the system and never making contact with anyone in the company. It feels like progress I have learned if I do this, I maybe get 1 interview for every 30 applications sent, and most of those never ask me back. What a terrible return on investment.

However, when I focus on people, on building relationships, asking thoughtful questions, commenting on posts, I have a much higher response/interview rate. Even better, people have started sending me job openings before I can find them! At this point, I cannot possibly follow through with all the opportunities people are sharing with me, so I share them with my network too, which perpetuates further network strength.

Pay attention to the methods you're using when networking and applying for work and adjust your approach when you find successes. When you're feeling blue, consider adjusting the strategies you're using. Vary how you're reaching out to people on LinkedIn. Change your message. Update your profile. Do something different! See how results change and continue making adjustments.

Resist the urge to try to get something from people when you connect with them right away. People are not opportunities. They are relationships. And opportunity only blooms from relationships you nurture. Sure, it might be who you know, but it's also who knows you. So let people get to know you.

Plan for the In-between

The wait can be a confidence killer. Waiting can be when dread and desperation sink in. What if they don't like me? What if I'm the only one who thought the interview was great? They said they'd get back to me today, and I still haven't heard from them. What if they don't call?

First, there are lots of reasons you may not have heard back yet:

Second, if you don't make a plan for what you'll do in the in-between, your mind is likely to fill the gap for you with less than supportive thoughts. So make a plan for yourself! Write a list of activities that bring you joy, books you're interested in reading, chores you need to get done, etc. Then, when they tell you'll hear back on Monday, you can make sure it's filled with something you can dive into and enjoy rather than wait by the phone or hit refresh repeatedly on your email.

I tend to work on my professional development/build my portfolio while I wait. When I'm particularly excited about a position, I focus on skills I think that employer would appreciate. I've completed projects and courses before the next round interview so I have more to talk about with the new individual (maybe even a need to send an updated resume). LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, Udemy, Khan Academy... lots of (almost) free opportunities to grow out there.

It may take time to find the right in-between activity for you and absolutely follow up when the time is right. But whatever you do, don't spend your energy spinning in the dreadful in-between.

Remember Kindness

Small changes create the largest impact over time. If all you can do in one day is revise one part of your resume, you still have more than you had the day before. Every step you take matters. No one gets hired faster because they berated themselves, and in a world that often profits off of your self-doubt, believing in yourself is a revolutionary act. Acknowledge your struggle without self-rejection and keep moving forward. You got this.

Tools

Here are some tools I'm using while I search. I hope they help you in yours.

• Trello - helps you stay organized. I have a freebie job hunt template you can copy if it helps. I've included others resources there as well.
• Canva - a graphic design tool with lots of templates (including resumes!). It has a free version, and its premium trial is about 30 days. When I purchased it after my trial was up ($119 for a year), it asked me if I wanted to include anyone in my purchase, so if you can find up to five other people interested in it, y'all might be able to share the cost.
• Jobscan - helps you get passed the ATS. You get ten free scans of your resume compared to the job ad; however, if you refer others, you get more free scans. Full disclosure, the link I've shared is a referral from my account. I get ten free scans anytime someone signs up with it. A good tool I'd recommend regardless though.
• Hunter.io - a tool to help you connect with individuals over their work emails. They also have a new Chrome Plug-in to help you track when people open your emails. This data can help you adjust your approach.
• LinkedIn Learning - check with your local library. Some of them have made deals with LinkedIn so the community can have free access to the learning tool. If not, it's a 30 day free trial. Plan out what you want to learn before you start the clock.