I heard a quote the other day ” There is no homeostasis, you’re either growing or dying.” This rings truest if you are out of work or underemployed. Every day you are not working costs you.
I am not trying to start a panic but you really do need to get off and stay off your butt if you are out of work. I am not saying you need to be frenetic about it but you need to take it seriously, like it’s your job. If you want to make $40k a year then each workday you miss costs you over $150. Need I remind you that you only need ONE JOB?
Look at it from a recruiter’s point of view… to hire one person we usually need to have 2-3 finalists. To get one finalist it usually takes 3-4 first interviews. To get a first interview it usually takes about 8-10 applicants. Quick math will tell you that means I usually need over 100 applicants to fill a position. If I miss one person that would have been the RIGHT person that means I could need another 100 applicants. Those numbers keep me on my toes.
You need to keep this in mind in your job search. Should you send out the four networking emails today that are on your job search plan? Should you go by that job fair? Should you look online? Again, not to make you panic, but if someone else gets that ONE JOB, you may need to do a whole lot more looking.
Make it a game if you need to. Jane McGonigal tells you how in her TED Talk. It is not directly about searching for a job but it is easy to adapt her SuperBetter game to your quest for employment.
Yes, I know searching for a job sucks. I have been there. But as Rob Schneider as the Townie in The Waterboy said “You can do it!”
Al
Criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing and being nothing.
Aristotle