Job Search Psychology: Keeping Your Head Above Water

In life and in job search, the road does not always rise up to meet your feet.  Sometimes the road drops off and becomes a ditch.  And you are left there.  Legs dangling.

Your ability to react with perspective when it happens is key to maintaining a positive psychology.

How is it that you can have a great week and then one piece of bad news on Friday ruins the weekend?

For a peek into my own psychology  . . . Overall, here at Tim’s Strategy, there are a lot of great things happening.  The new 30 Ideas ebook just launched, the new website is coming along great, and more and more job seekers are joining in at Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and now Squidoo.

I’m also just a few days away from hitting 100,000 page views since the blog started.  Is that a lot?  Well, no, not really.  But, thanks to you, more and more people are learning about the resources available here and on the website.  And last week alone there were 10,000 page views.  So, as a group we are growing!

But I have my own days of frustration.  Days of disappointment.

I had one yesterday.  My stomach hurt when I learned about it.  And it took me the whole day to unwrap it.  To fully expose it.  And to accept it.

And the truth is that experiencing, dealing with and learning from disappointment is good for you.   It prepares you for bigger disappointments down the road.  Makes the smaller ones seem, well, small.  And they will come again.  Especially if you are trying to build something.  Trying to do something important.  Like finding that next great role in your career.

But what keeps me going is the larger mission.  Helping job seekers build a successful strategy.

What’s your larger mission and how can you keep that in the center of your thinking?

Meeting with job seekers every week keeps me in tune with the real issues out there.  The disappointments.

Through one-on-one’s and networking events here in Southern California, e-mail exchanges, phone calls and resume reviews with folks around the U.S. and around the world, I get a first hand look at what’s bugging you.

And then I can write about it – offering a few ideas to help.

So I say all this to let you know that I remember the ups and downs from my search back in 2007.

I remember feeling let down after not getting the answer from a company that I wanted (or thought I wanted).

I remember the air leaving my lungs when I returned home from a two day trip and not a single e-mail had arrived relating to my search.

I remember getting into a real funk when my expectations were not met days or weeks after a “great interview”

When I meet with job seekers today, I hear those same emotions coming out.  Sometimes it shows as frustration.  Sometimes stress or anger.  And, every once in a while just a sense of loss.

So I try to help define that larger mission for them.  The big picture that helps them to see a single piece of bad news in a new or brighter light.

The same light I shine on my own disappointments.

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