How to enjoy your Job Search
Enjoying your job search may seem a bit counter-intuitive because it is usually accompanied by stress, frustration, and despair. I want you to take a deep breath and take a few steps back. I know that we all have bills and worries and people in our life that we need to support. I want you to let it all go and clear your mind. This may be easier said than done because what we do is immediately try to jump back into the rat race. This ultimately leads us to less desired position with less desired pay and we start the same “I hate my Job” cycle again which has brought us to this place, to begin with.
This “time off” is what you may need the most. If you have just recently been laid of, or you quit or you just graduated I want you to take a month off and absolutely do nothing.
Yes do absolutely nothing. I know that the temptation is going to be strong to try to find a position right away, leading us to apply to 800 jobs in a single week, accept the first offer that comes our way, stress, worry and consequently get depressed.
I should retract when I say do nothing for the first month. No we will be actually doing a lot of things, things that will set us up for a rewarding career or at least on lead us onto the right path.
Here is the quick checklist and the our job search guide for our “Month of Freedom”
We need to realize that most of our stress comes from the inability to pay the bills or support ourselves and make ends meet, so the first thing we need to do is do some major house cleaning. This means making some really tough choices, choices that we will be grateful for and make our life less burdensome.
- Cancel you cable bill
- Sell your car
- Cut your rent costs, this means getting roommates, or moving back in with family or friends, or even just moving into a more affordable place.
- Saving at every step by using coupons on food, rethinking out diet, stop smoking, forget restaurants and fast food
- Cut our entertainment costs, stop watching movies, cancel Netflix, cut out any bills that are not necessary, with the exception of our internet of course
I did this not to long ago, I sold my car so me and my wife only use one, we moved into a more affordable house. We canceled the cable bill, started shopping smarter, and got rid of our stuff with yard sales, Craigslist and e-bay. It was such a freeing activity that got rid of $1500 on monthly bills and increased our savings account quite a bit. This looming “I’m trapped in this job I hate but I can’t afford to quit” is entirely gone now. You will be able to enjoy your job search more if you don’t have to worry about money or at least worry a little less.
2) This period could be worth a million dollars
Personally I have been working since I was sixteen years old and never took any time off other than the mere one or two week vacation that is given to us during an entire year. It’s really crazy how much time we spend working and the majority of the income we do make goes towards bills and unnecessary
The CEO of Disneyland once said that life is like four balls that we have to juggle at all times. They represent our family, our job, our health, and our spirit. What he realized is that 3 are made of glass and one is made of rubber. That rubber one being his job he said always seems to bounce back up in the end no matter how many times he drops it. The other ones however if dropped are shattered, scratched, cracked and will never be the same again. I want you to know that it’s never as bad as it may seem, you will get a job so in that regard worrying and stressing about it is a pointless and counterproductive activity. We will go into a more detailed approach towards making your job search enjoyable but there are some very important questions we have to ask ourselves first.
3) Excuses be gone
Its time to stop sleepwalking and really take an inner look at ourselves. What has brought you to this position, why is it that you keep having the same fights with people. Why is it that you don’t like certain people? What type of scenarios make you hate you job, why do I dislike my boss? What do I always do what other people want me to do. How come I didn’t go for any internships, this will be hard. I have no money. I’m too old or I’m too young, I can’t do this. How come I can’t get a company that really sees what I’m made of? Why do bad things happen to me?
Why are you having these beliefs and why are certain things happening to you over and over again? 
Its time to really clean out the closet and move all these negative things out of your system. A few years ago probably a year after graduating I read two books that made me change everything I was doing up to that point. One changed my mindset so much that it propelled me into a high paying career simply because I started thinking differently about myself and about the world that I live in.
“Excuses Be Gone” by Wayne Dyer
If you really take this book to hart and read it in its entirety you will realize that most thoughts we have are negative in nature. We tend to have approximately 40,000 thoughts on any given day and what’s really shocking is that 80% of these thoughts are the same ones that we had yesterday. At this point we need to really flush out your system and defeat the negative belief you may have. Give it a try, I posted an Amazon link to it, it’s an older book and you could buy it for less then $10 dollars. Here is the link Excuses Begone!: How to Change Lifelong, Self-Defeating Thinking Habits
4) What would I do If there was no way that I could fail
I want you to answer this question, then scratch out what you wrote and answer it again. Do this by hand and just write anything that comes to your mind. Now tare that piece of paper apart and really answer it again. You may be surprised what you find out.
Now read that paper and ask yourself why and write down the answers
5) What do I like and what do I hate
At this point I want you to make a list of all the things that you like to do and all the things you hate to do. I know at this point you are probably saying I hate to do everything but try to be objective. If you can go for a run or a little trip out nowhere with a notebook in your had it will do you much good.
What do you like to do in your free time, what you would do if you had all the money in the world but you were required to do something for eight hours every day. Do you like working with people, or working by yourself in a cubical. Do you like to research, write, do you like to talk over the phone or do you hate the idea of picking up the phone.
Again ask yourself why for each bullet point that you wrote down. Why do you like working with people, why do you hate selling. If you do this exercise you will get a good picture about the type of job that could enjoy which will make it less likely for you to apply for the jobs that you know you will dislike and instead you will go for the jobs that you do enjoy which will make your job search much for exciting. Life is to short to keep doing the things we don’t enjoy and I Think Steve Jobs said it best when he asked himself ” If today were the last day of my life ”
6) Write down job titles that you would like to eventually have
It’s not too late to create a career path and build a road towards the ultimate goal. What positions would you love to have eventually? Would you like to switch careers, go into real-estate, become a firefighter, would you like to be a nurse or go into teaching?
some of you may be asking me at this point, well I’m 50 years old and I just don’t have the time to get these qualifications at this point. Well let me ask you this, how long would it take you to get the certifications and how old will you be if you did go for that degree.
Two years, four years…
OK… now how old will you be after those two or four years if you chose not to get that degree or that license. It’s really a matter of perspective and age is just an excuse in my eyes. We can make excuses and be in the same situation 5 years from now, or we can figure out the things that we want and work towards them.
If you do have a vague idea at this point its not to hard to map out a career path for yourself. Here is how to quickly do it:
Create a LinkedIn profile and then in that search box type in that title that you want to go after. Contact that person that may have that job and simply ask “I would love to be in your shoes someday. I know that you are very busy but would you mind telling me how you got there?
You will be surprised how much people love to talk about themselves and how willing they are to give advice. IF and only If you do this for the next 20 people you will find a pattern. Maybe they all have a certain technical skill, or they all took some sort of certification, they possibly started in a similar entry level role. Take a good look at their profile and take good notes on their skills, employment history, education etc. This will give is a road map and now we just have to emulate them.
7) Fake it till you make it
You will have undoubtedly uncovered some similarities. If it was a financial analyst for example that you wanted to be you will notice that the majority of them have been bookkeepers as their entry level role. If it was a real-estate agent or a Network specialist they may have license or a certification. If it’s a programming position they may have a CS degree or they may simply be really good at certain programming languages and somebody gave them a shot. During our “month of freedom” we want to make sure that every day we are doing something to get closer to our goal weather this is learning a skill or gaining the knowledge that our industry requires.
8) Set yourself goals but don’t go overboard
Applying for jobs can take much energy out of you. It no wonder how many people get so depressed because they apply to 100,000 jobs and not a single phone call comes their way. Hopefully at this stage we have an idea what type of jobs we want, what type of jobs we won’t hate or hate less, we know what skills we need, what our resume should look like and have received some advice on how to go about it.
Every Day I want you to set yourself a few achievable goals that will enable you to enjoy your job search
- I will learn something every day
- You should have a list of skills that you need in order to get that job you want, It may be excel, a certification, a license, a program
- Invest in yourself, don’t worry if that book or the license costs money, never be afraid to risk anything, because when you bet on yourself you will never lose
- Apply to only three positions per day, YES ONLY 3
- This is very doable and won’t tire you out
- I promise to tailor my resume to the jobs I apply for and will include a minimum of 4 requirements or objectives that are listed on the Job Description in my Resume and my Cover Letter.
- I will visit Resume Templates For Mac and ask any questions I may have and use the resources on this site to tailor my resume and my cover letter
If you do these things consistently every day you will notice that you will start being more motivated about life in general. We are more happy when we accomplish small goals and reach our objectives. We are happy when we are learning and working towards making ourselves better. You may even find out that you will miss this time greatly once you land a job.
9) Stop being a Zombie
Take the pledge with me and make a promise to yourself to stop sleepwalking through life. Don’t be a robot and don’t waste your time
This means no TV – Yes watching TV adds nothing to your life. Any TV show, any sports event, any news story does nothing to add any value to your life. Watching TV makes you dumb because all of your brain cells die and your body goes into a coma when you stare at a screen in a comatose state. If you absolutely must watch TV then at least set yourself some ground rules and commits not to watch any TV before 8pm.
Start working out – Yes exercise will make your depression go away, it will give you more energy and build up your confidence. It’s a good cleansing for you mind as well, a run in the morning or a job in the park, a bike ride, a hike, a swim will do wonders for your mind and your body.
Watch what you eat – Really watch what you eat because the things we put into our bodies can make us depressed, drain our energy and not to mention the money that is wasted. Try cooking every night for at least 50 days and this will instill the habit or eliminating that cheesy bread. Not only can you invite friends to do this together but it can become a great hobby for you that you may find therapeutic in a strange way. Maybe this is just me but it works.
10) You are not alone
You can’t do this alone, if you are retreating to your room and running away from society or if you are trying to do this all by yourself it can a path to disaster. I want you to be social and make new friends. I’m an introvert myself and don’t like to spend all my time socializing, however I do go to networking events, conferences, and other social gatherings.
You have all the time in the world now. Go to meetup.com and look for groups that are interesting to you, go join them, job offers and networking opportunities can and will rise out of these get together.
Attend conferences – Universities have many great guest speakers coming all the time and these events tend to be free so why not go and listen to somebody talk 
about their newest book or a new innovation in their field. Go to career fairs and networking opportunities, these are more prevalent nowadays and usually take place in bars or restaurants. Take a friend with you and go have a drink, talk to recruiters.
Apply for Jobs that are absolutely below you – Yes I want you to do this once every week, I don’t want you to accept these jobs instead this will become our little interview preparation exercise. You will notice how much more you are confident in these interviews knowing that you will not accept this job. If you do this once every week you will become better at interviews and this simple trick will be the reason why you ace and land that job that you do want.
Sign up with staffing agencies – Sometimes we can take a one or two month gig to make some extra money without the need to commit or while working towards our goals, that’s completely ok. Building a relationship with a recruiter can lead to many great career opportunities. I have personally sent some of my clients to a few friends of mine and even to companies that I didn’t receive any compensation in return. If my boss found this out he would hate me, but recruiters in general are people that want to help others out. Not always, there are some really bad ones but you can usually tell simply by talking to them. Anyways use staffing agencies as a resource.
Enjoy your job search because this time off may be short. I hope this guide has helped you get more focused and will keep you more motivated during your job search. Let me know what you think below and also subscribe to our mailing list to receive updates about new guides an other helpful job search advise that we publish.
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