15 Best Ways to Manage Job Search Frustration
Looking for a job could be a painful experience if one does not know how to handle frustrations that come from searching for a job for a long time without success.
The frustration could be mental leading to other issues like fatigue and depression.
This article will look at the best 15 ways to manage job search frustration.
If you are a job seeker faced with frustrations, then this article is for you.
With some suggestions here, you could find a way to manage frustration emanating from your job search.
So, below are the best 15 ways you can effectively manage job search frustration:
- Deal with your feelings
Frustrations tend to lead to bad feelings like sadness, anger, depression, etc. This is true and not what can be handled easily.
When you search for a job for a long time without success, there is a big chance of you getting into big time frustration.
However, in this situation, you should deal with your feelings. Dealing with your feelings is to come to the realization that rejection is normal, especially in a congested world where a lot of factors play out to determine the outcome of job opportunities.
If you must develop strength or energy to keep going, then you must deal with your feelings.
Though frustration may not be easy to control, yet it is not impossible to deal with.
Transferred aggression is never an option because it will not do you any good.
2. Relate with friends and family
One of the ways to deal with your frustration is to maintain a good relationship with family and friends.
You don’t need to hide your frustration or pretend like everything is alright when clearly nothing is working out for you.
You don’t have to go into your shell because of frustration. That is not the best option and never will.
When you talk to family and friends, they can help you get over your frustration.
This could come in the form of going on outings and other lucrative activities.
When you slide into your shell, you will get emotional torture and with that become disinterested in whatever happens around you.
Let go of the frustration through participating in family outings and regularly hanging out with friends for the fun of it sometimes.
3. Handle criticisms well
There could be reasons why you haven’t got that job; your imperfection could be responsible for that.
Imperfections in terms of how you write your resume and other prerequisites you are not getting right could play a role in why you are not considered for some jobs.
This is when and why you need to learn how to deal with criticisms expertly.
One of the problems you can heap for yourself is to become immune to criticisms that you no longer see the need to improve.
This could be a dangerous spot you will not wish to find yourself.
In dealing with criticisms, first understand that the criticisms might not be pleasant to your hearing.
Some people are not gifted in correcting others constructive. However the way criticisms come, take it expertly and not personally.
4. Take up a part time job
While you wait for that dream job, why don’t you take up a part time job?
This will help you deal with your frustrations. When you take up a part time job, you will find it easy to deal with your frustrations and also acquire new skills in the process.
In fact, there is every chance you could develop a new interest in the part time job you are doing.
That is why you should not neglect any job, especially while you await your dream job.
Take up a job like freelancing and try to build on it.
When you stay idle, you will find yourself thinking about your missed opportunities and that is when frustration sets in.
But when you take up a part time job like freelancing, you may end up developing an interest in it and probably charting a new course for your life.
5. Write down your career goal
Writing down your career goals could also be a good way to deal with frustration relating to job search.
Don’t lose sight of your career goals and ensure that you work on ways to bring them to fruition.
There is no reason to drop your goals simply because you don’t have a job yet.
Write down your goals and keep them fresh in your mind every day.
No matter how difficult it is to deal with joblessness, your dreams and goals should spur you into not giving up.
You don’t win by quitting neither do you expect anything positive by quitting.
Inspire yourself with stories of people who were able to deal with their negative situations and got the best they wanted from life.
Those stories will help you overcome your frustrations while working daily to reach your goals in life.
6. Join a job club
There are many clubs online that help people get their resume across to potential employers.
These clubs are free for you to join and most of them don’t charge a dime to help you get your resume across to potential employers.
Check up some of those clubs online and know the most efficient of them all and join.
As stated earlier, most of them don’t charge a dime to help you while some might actually charge some money.
But either way, find one that can help you get the job done.
Also, there are some online platforms that advertise jobs from different parts of the country.
Your phone is there to help you find these platforms and fix yourself in one of them.
Watch out for job adverts and apply for the ones you have an interest in.
7. Learn to collaborate
Nothing stops you from working in tandem with people of like passion.
The best way to handle your frustration is to go to people who have been there before you to help advise you on what to do in moments when you are confused and don’t know what to do.
But first you must take the initiative to get across to such individuals.
There is no need to be puffed up in your mind thinking you need nobody’s help in your job search.
In fact, the person you relate with well could help you end your job search.
But then, to collaborate well with people, you will need relationship building skills to do so.
If you don’t know how to collaborate with people, it could be because you are not skilled in human relationship building. Learn to do so as fast as you can.
8. Help others
There are a lot of job seekers whose attention is solely on what they want (their dream job) and nothing more.
There is nothing else they care about, especially helping anyone. This is quite wrong and is not encouraging in any way.
On the contrary, helping people could be a good way to be happy always whether you are looking for a job or not, whether it is convenient for you or not.
You just have to create the world you want to see and live in.
Remember, you are also looking for help and that comes in the form of job you are searching for.
There are some people that have been liberated from the shackles of joblessness because of the noble help they rendered to others.
Sometimes, you need to understand that the person you are helping today could be the messiah to end your job search.
So, learn to be nice always.
9. Don’t quit
Developing a winning mentality really starts before you even acquire your dream job.
Sometimes, the period of time you spend searching for a decent job could be the best time to work on your endurance and perseverance as an individual.
You can’t afford to give up in your search for what you want.
This means that no matter how frustrated you might be in the course of searching for your dream job, don’t consider quitting at any time.
The reason is simple, you can’t win when you quit.
So, developing a winning mentality is in your ability to endure and persevere until you get what you want.
This is why you should always have role models who achieved some great feat through perseverance.
That will encourage you never to give up.
10. Take care of yourself
This is more or less about self-preservation. Though you are advised not to give up in your search for what you want, yet it is important that you take a break and within that period rest your body and your mind and take a closer look at yourself and ask yourself some important questions.
Taking care of your body is very important. If you continue to toil without giving yourself a rest, you will increase your frustration and put yourself at the risk of falling ill at any time.
This is why you should learn how to take a break at intervals.
Also, your mind deserves some break. That is the truth you need to know about searching for a job.
When you give your mind a break, you will be able to clear some trash from off your brain and think of a possible way of increasing your chances of landing a good job.
11. Be smart
In today’s world, the people that have eclipsed others in achievements of life are people that have learned to be smart in whatever they do.
This is not different at all when you want to deal with job frustration you might be facing in your life.
There are areas of your life you might need to apply smartness. One of these is in your dress sense.
When you dress well, you appear presentable before people.
Don’t look smart only when you are looking for a job though it is important to do so. Also, be smart in the way you think and talk.
Shockingly enough, some people that have been able to land good paying jobs are people whose smart words and thought pattern made a way for them. This is why you should be smart in all you do.
12. Understand the job description
Whenever you are applying for a job, the questions you need to ask yourself include:
What is the description of the job I am searching for?
What does it take to do this job?
Can I handle the nature and routines of this job?
You should answer the above questions to have a clear understand of the expectations and requirements of the job.
Remember, the type of job you are searching for has its unique requirements and routines.
Therefore, if you are applying for a job and you are not getting any reply, there is every tendency that from your resume, you don’t have the qualifications or meet the requirements to handle the job effectively.
This could be judged by the recruiter from the skills and qualities stated in your resume or the accomplishments you have cited.
Not knowing what is expected of the job or its requirements could lead to frustration if your applications are continually turned down.
However, when you understand why you are been rejected, you could work on yourself and your resume and turn things around.
13. Check or work on your resume
Your resume represents your entire personality when it gets to the table of your potential employer.
So when your resume gets to your recruiter or potential employer, it represents whatever you think of yourself.
It represents your level of expertise and many other things you could think of.
In the light of this fact, ensure that the resume you are submitting to any organization has the needed quality to get you through to the next stage of the job recruitment process.
If your resume is good, you stand a better chance of landing a good job.
You can learn how to write a good resume and submit it for professional critique where you will be helped to fine tune it for greater success with recruiters at Critique my Resume.
14. Attend seminars and workshops on job search
Many job seekers are guilty of this. There are many job seekers who do not see the need to attend seminars and workshops probably because money is involved.
This is a wrong mindset which you need not have if you are to make any improvement in life.
Take out time and money and attend seminars and webinars as much as you can afford.
It is in the course of these trainings that you can prepare yourself to achieve what you want.
Sometimes, you just need to understand that what you know before might just not work presently.
So, don’t see trainings and seminars as waste of time. Grab every opportunity you have to learn what you need to excel in your job even as you are still hoping on getting one.
In summary, increase your knowledge and technicality and you are good to go.
15. Know where your skills are needed
The skills needed by a medical doctor or practitioner could be different from the skills an engineer might need to succeed in his/her own job.
Different skills are needed for different jobs and these to a varying extent could determine how successful one could be in his/her job.
The skills we are talking about are a combination of both natural skills and acquired skills.
Your natural skills should go a long way to help direct you into the path of career to choose and not just your certification alone.
This is one error many job seekers make that prevents them from finding a good job.
Though the pay and other factors are put into consideration while looking for a suitable job, yet it is your natural skills that play a bigger role in the kind of job you should be searching for.
Staying in the wrong job increases your dissatisfaction in the job.
Conclusion
Frustration is real no doubt about that, and frustration emanating from prolonged job search could be more devastating considering the fact you have bills to pay and your dream life to live.
So, it is quite understandable to feel frustrated when you have no job to call your own.
However, this article has been able to deal with ways you can manage this frustration and live a purposeful and normal life you have always wanted.
Frustration is real but can be managed.