Looking for a job these days can be stressful. Finding work isn’t necessarily the tough part—locating a position that pays you enough to live, save for a home, start a family and enjoy work-life balance, on the other hand, can be the doozy.
Real wages have stagnated for well over 40 years while the cost of living has skyrocketed, and neither the government nor most employers have caught onto the fact that rent is no longer $400 a month in most places.
You need your strength and mental focus to survive the harrowing and often depressing journey of the modern job seeker. Here are eight mental health and mindfulness tips to use during a job search that’ll help you keep your spirits up.
Relax and keep it real
You apply for a seemingly perfect role, but you never get called for an interview. You might automatically question what you did wrong.
Relax—the lack of a call might have more to do with the company’s applicant tracking system than anything you did. It’s nearly impossible to tick every box in the desired traits field. Stay honest and focus on the qualities you do possess and want to showcase in your next position. The pieces will eventually fit, resulting in work you can do well and enjoy instead of merely punching a clock.
Make a schedule
Searching for work is a full-time job. It’s easy to get overwhelmed, which can lead to panic during unrelated tasks. You could be grocery shopping when you ask yourself, “Did I attach my references to that last application?”
Creating a schedule will lower your stress levels and keep you on top of your time management skills, which will be useful when you do find a position. Use an app or an old-fashioned paper planner to plot your week on Sunday evenings and tackle your most onerous chore first—like that application requiring five essay responses. The rest of your to-do list will seem like smooth sailing once you “eat your frog.”
Rally your support network
Now is the time to ally yourself with upbeat, positive people who believe in you and your skills. There will always be naysayers telling you that you should feel lucky to have a job, any job. Perhaps that was true back when most positions allowed you to afford a home, but that’s no longer the case.
You need to surround yourself with people who uplift you and encourage you to reach for your dreams. The bitter reality is that working 40 hours a week drains your energy. It’s a lot tougher to search for a job when you have to juggle responsibilities—not to mention sneaking out to your car on your lunch break to interview.
Therefore, ignore those who urge you to settle. Economic reality might force you into taking a role you despise, but peer pressure shouldn’t influence you to do something that defies your best interests. Gravitate towards those who help you find meaningful solutions, while perhaps taking a part-time gig to help with bills while searching for your dream job.
Continue learning
Lifelong learning is a must in a technology-driven world. As frustrating as it can be to master new gadgets and apps before other people, it pales in comparison to feeling left behind.
Learning also improves your sense of agency: the feeling that your actions can make a positive difference in your world. You can’t overemphasize the importance of this personal empowerment when it comes to managing getting ghosted and similar job-search frustrations.
Finally, continued learning shows you value self-improvement, a quality that’ll make you more attractive to the right employers. Rounding out your skills can also help you switch fields.
Engage in stress-reduction activities
Job searches are stressful. You might want to grab a drink after a long day of pounding the pavement, physically or virtually, but doing so can hurt your chances and lead to a whirlwind of negative repercussions.
Instead, find healthy ways to ease stress. Exercise is a fabulous choice, and it’ll help you maintain your weight and physical well-being. With that, you’ll stand up straighter and look more confident during interviews.
Yoga and meditation are also fantastic for easing stress. If you’re a fan of manifestation, you can find guided manifestation videos on YouTube that may help you actualize your dream job.
Embrace mindfulness
What makes Yoga and meditation so good for easing stress? These practices encourage mindfulness, but they aren’t your only possible route to remaining grounded.
Mindfulness is the quality of being fully in the moment. When you’re mindful, you won’t be ruminating about how you should’ve answered that last interview question or wondering how you’ll pay rent if you don’t find a job within the next few weeks. You’ll focus 100 percent of your attention on what you sense and experience in the present.
This practice helps you make rational decisions instead of emotionally charged ones—like settling for a toxic work environment out of fear you can’t find anything better. You can ground yourself by slowly savouring a snack or practicing the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 technique. To do so, name five things you can see, followed by four you can touch. Then go onto three you can hear, two you can smell and one you can taste.
Practice dialectical positivity
What is dialectical positivity? It’s different from the toxic stuff that pretends bad things don’t happen. Instead, it embraces that there are always two ways to look at a situation. For example, that freak rainstorm may mean arriving at your interview a bit damp. However, it could also tell you that you’ve found a healthy, understanding company when your interviewer brushes off your apology over your wet clothes with, “Don’t be silly. Life happens to everyone.”
How do you practice it? Think of the wackiest, weirdest way to find the positive in any situation. Did you spill coffee down your favourite blouse before interview day—and it requires dry-cleaning? Wear something else. Maybe your interviewer despises that particular colour and the universe just did you a solid by preventing you from rocking it.
Incorporate break time
Searching for a job can exhaust you. You might do as much work as you did on the clock—only you don’t get paid. Give yourself breaks while you wait for your ultimate reward.
Practice the Pomodoro technique when filling out lengthy applications. Work for 25 minutes, then take a five-minute break before returning to your desk. After three or four such periods, take a long half-hour to an hour to eat, exercise or spend time with loved ones.
Boosting your mental health is essential
Searching for a job is stressful. While employers grumble over less-than-ideal candidates, workers must contend with a market where few jobs pay them enough to live in exchange for their services.
Regardless, taking the right approach can spare you a lot of frustration and despair. Follow these eight mental health and mindfulness tips during your job search, boost your mood and get the role you deserve.
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