Job seeking today can be a soul destroying task with, at times, so many candidates chasing so few openings. You should be prepared to take setbacks but the secret here is to keep focussed and keep pursuing openings.
Your preparation traditionally has been ensuring your resume is eye catching and up to date plus the covering letters you write are targeted at the particular role you are hoping to interview for.
You have read all the articles about your interview body language and trained and tested yourself on the traditional hard interview questions plus have put together a set of good questions to put to the interviewer. You have also done some background searches on the companies whose jobs you wish to interview for to enable you to have a meaningful conversation at the interview about the company, the role, and what you can bring to it.
However if you have been searching for a job for a while you are probably getting weary of the whole process and this might well affect your attitude and how you come across in the next interview. So what can you do to keep fresh?
You should keep yourself physically healthy by exercising daily and you should also ensure your diet is also a healthy one because the stress you can be under whilst engaged in a long job search can be debilitating to your health. It’s amazing how good health can affect your attitude and render it more fresh and positive.
Job searching is no different to having a job and, like paid employment you need to set time aside properly for meals, recreation and for rest and relaxation. You should also consider volunteering for local organisations. This can be beneficial for a number of reasons. It keeps you sharp and ready for work and you have an opportunity to perhaps help people or animals (always a good thing) plus you might be fortunate enough to engage with people who can actually help you in your job search. It also looks good on your resume and shows potential employers that you haven’t just sat around for a while between jobs and lastly anything that keeps your attitude positive and fresh is a plus plus when it comes to actual paid work.
So keep fresh and good luck in your job search.
Steve Blythe (Recruitment and Social Media Commentator).