If you're job hunting right now, here's how to prepare
The job market is tougher than it’s been in a long time. Thanks (or make that no thanks) to the coronavirus pandemic, many of us have been left without work.
If you've lost your job, or are one of the many recent graduates now entering the world of work, you might be job hunting right now. But before you do fire out CVs and apply for every job going, we asked psychologist Fiona Murden to give some tips on how to get yourself in the mindset for the hunt. Because as your nan might have said once, failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
Before we get to Fiona's stellar advice, we thought you should know that there's more help on offer if you're trying to navigate your working life during this time. The Cosmopolitan Careers Festival, which is running throughout September, is a series of free virtual events on topics from the art of self-promotion to the companies and industries who actually are hiring right now, there's plenty of help on offer. Oh, and did we mention that every session is entirely free?
Before you kick off your search for employment in earnest, though, take heed of Fiona's top advice...
Job hunting - Focus on what you can control
Distinguish what’s within your control, and what's not. You have no say over the fact that there is a bleak marketplace and that there are going to be less opportunities, so if you start despairing about those things, you’ll be left feeling helpless. Turn your attention to searching and applying for jobs, rather than worrying about the state of the economy.
Job hunting - Tell everyone you're looking for a job
And I mean absolutely every person you know or meet. Tell them what skills you have in a clear, concise way – these are soundbites they can take away and tell someone else. Because when people have got their ears open to opportunities, leads crop up. There might be a business down the road who you had no idea needed someone to help out. That’s your first foot in the door.
Job hunting - The dream job can wait
The first job doesn't have to be the right one – in this market, and to begin with, it’s just about getting yourself into a work environment and bringing some money in. You’ve got your whole life to craft your career. Besides, if you can do a job you don’t necessarily love for a little while, you’ll buy some time for the market to recover and there might be more jobs out there that are better suited to you when you next start searching. Plus, once you’ve got a job, it's much easier to get your next.
Job hunting - Do something
If you can’t find any work at all, volunteer; it’ll give you a sense of purpose and help you learn skills you can take to paid employment and lead to other opportunities. If you started working in your local charity shop, you might be asked to manage it for a couple of days per week. Being sat at home not doing anything and feeling idle completely erodes your confidence and mental health. The recent neuroscientific research suggests giving back makes us feel good, too.
Job hunting - Remember: now isn’t always
Psychologically, we believe that the way things are right now is how they’re always going to be, but things will change. They will get better. Ask yourself: will this matter in ten years? It feels like the whole world fell apart this year, but one day you will look back and this period won't matter so much, so try to not catastrophise. The brain will believe what it's trained to believe so, every morning, take a couple of minutes in a quiet place to visualise yourself coping, feeling confident and living your life on the other side.
Job hunting - Find support
To develop emotional resilience, you need sleep, self-awareness, and social support. The latter is critical to mental health, and our ability to stay hopeful. Find a Facebook page where people are discussing job-hunting, or set up a WhatsApp group between ten acquaintances who are going through the same thing. It’s a good way of sharing frustrations and disappointments. And, when someone in the group does get a job, it shows that there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
Mirror Thinking: How Role Models Make Us Human by Fiona Murden is out now (£16.99, Bloomsbury)
Find out more about the Cosmopolitan Careers Festival
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