How To Take Care Of Yourself While Job Hunting During Coronavirus

Job hunting is stressful. Job hunting when unemployment is through the roof is nerve-wracking. Job hunting during coronavirus can be traumatic. Acknowledge your honest feelings because they are legitimate, then make a decision about the actions you’re going to take from here forward – productive action is the solution to the job search doldrums.

Set A Schedule

And guess what: make that schedule blank on Friday, Saturday, and most of Sunday. You do not have to job search practically 24/7 in order to get ahead. You absolutely deserve downtime.

Monday through Thursday, determine what number of new opportunities you’re going to find. Three would be nice. If you decide on ten, great. Twenty-five is probably too high, and having that number loom over your head will put you squarely back into high-stress mode.

For three opportunities daily, apply, find the relevant people to reach out to on LinkedIn, and connect or send a message. Keep a spreadsheet or log of your activity. But the end of each week the numbers add up. You’re moving forward.

Give yourself a break on the weekends. Sunday night, probably while you’re watching TV, check your LinkedIn messages and, decide which conversations you may need to re-initiate, and which you’re going to respond to.

Move The Needle

We all have a broken record playing in our head, and we chose what that record is in the 1st place. If you’re stuck repeatedly thinking there’s no opportunities out there, or no one’s responding to you, or everyone’s judging you the longer you’re unemployed, then it’s time to move the needle.

Re-evaluate your skills, which primarily have to do with how you’ve made an impact for your employers. Are you always the person who comes in and turns the sales organization around? Great. What is it about you that gives you the knack for doing that? Have people repeatedly called on you to recalibrate their marketing. Excellent. That happens because people have immediately seen something in you that makes them immediately think you’re the person to do the job.

This re-evaluation may prompt you to revitalize your messaging. Emails start off stale when they say, “I’m an experienced professional with 27 years of experience in sales.” Fire that up by saying instead, “I’m a sales executive who drives multi-millions in new revenue for newly-launched consumer brands.”

Celebrate Small Successes

{cue the depressing soundtrack} “Well, nothing’s really going on. I had 2 phone interviews, so we’ll see what comes of those. Tomorrow I’m set up for an in-person interview – it’s my second one with this particular organization about the Director of Operations role. So, that’s on the agenda. But besides that, I’ve still not heard anything from the 18 other opportunities I applied for.”

Wait 1 second: why did that statement start and end with negativity, with a whole bunch of good things packed in the middle? {Hint: I already know why: it’s because of the broken record stuck in your head phenomenon…}

One of the things that happens in our thought process is we’re naturally focused on, “I just need a job.” And anything but that result doesn’t bring us pleasure. Change that. There are 2 things at play here: the process and the result. Everything is process until you get the result. Get happy about what you make happen during the process.

These are wins! 2 phone interviews? Excellent. Make sure your follow up is on point. A 2nd interview tomorrow? Perfect. Make sure your research on the company and the person you’ll be speaking to is complete.

Self-care matters. How you think about this process – and how you think about you – matters. You need to be the coach and the player. The coach calls a huddle repeatedly during the game. You need to practice self-care repeatedly during your search. Go into a huddle with yourself, re-calibrate your thinking, remind yourself of your wins, and come back out strong. You will find what you need.