Anytime you start something new like a job search for the first time in years, it’s normal to feel a twinge of doubt here and there. The realization that finding a good job takes time and effort can at times be overwhelming and when combined with the rejection, it creates an opportunity for doubt to slowly creep in your psyche.
The truth about job search doubt is that it transcends your experience, titles, degrees, gender and the size of your pay check – it’s an equal opportunity emotion that can take your focus off the most important aspects of your search and rob you of much needed energy.
A successful job search requires a ton of focus on how you can help an employer, the value you bring to the team and an upbeat attitude that creates rapport. Even those that land a job will often describe their journey as one filled with highs and lows with self-talk being the most challenging battleground.
Doubting keeps you guessing about your skills and will eventually come out during a time when you least expect it like during an interview. Doubt shows up in your answers and sounds like “I think I can contribute” rather than “I know I can.”
Often the most disheartening aspect of doubt is that you could be on the brink of a huge breakthrough that’s just around the corner, the ideal lead or meeting your future boss but you quit searching and start listening to fearful thoughts.
Doubt does have limited power and can only go as far as you allow. You can stop doubt dead in its tracks before it wreaks havoc on your job search by recognizing when it starts.
Key Signs of Doubt
• Recalling failures during your search, by replaying thoughts beginning with “I should have…”
• Hanging around people who are negative and constantly talk about how difficult the job market has become.
• Receive multiple rejections and instead of learning from them you start interpreting it as something is wrong with your skills.
• Start comparing yourself to others and wonder why they landed a job faster than you.
• Thinking about age whether young or old and how this will influence decision makers.
• Concentrate on all the skills you don’t have versus the ones you do have.
• Being terminated from a job for performance issues and struggle to move past it.
• Sent out hundreds of resumes online, applying for positions that match your experience and receive little response from your efforts.
• Setting unrealistic expectations.
The truth about doubt is that it can make you stronger candidate when you are aware of its sabotaging effects on your job search. In spite of the awkwardness of a job search in meeting people and selling your background, no one is perfect.
A lack of results could be due to your job search techniques and has little to do with your work experience. Doubting has a way of influencing your beliefs that it’s all about you rather than how you are searching for a job.
How do you overcome doubt during your job search?
