What is worse than job hunting? Not a whole lot!
Job searching is perhaps the most grueling tiresome task anyone can do. It can take forever to find the right job that has the salary requirement you are looking for, doing what you want to be doing, and qualified enough to get the interview. After that you can have several interviews and then still have no job. Or you can be one of the lucky ones and apply to a job, interview for it and get it – all within a short period of time.
I have been one of the lucky ones, and I have been one of the unlucky ones. Currently, I am feeling that I am one of the unlucky ones. Part of my problem is that I am not sure what it is I really want to do – what will really make me feel good about going into work everyday. I want to feel challenged, I want to feel like I am accomplishing something, and I want to feel good about what I am doing. Maybe that is a tall order, maybe I am acting a little spoiled. But I’m single, I have no obligations, no kids, no dog, no Peruvian jellyfish – my career is my only motivating factor to get up in the morning and go to work and earn a living.
Job searching is a highly developed skill that I wish I was better at. I know eventually, I will find something, I always have. But this is the time that sucks. This is the time that I wish was over. This is the in-between time. The time where the tourist with the baby stroller makes it to the Metro doors before you do, you know you will eventually get out, but how long will you have to wait? Is it possible that he will dawdle so much that you might possibly miss your stop because he has no idea there are 50 people behind him trying to get off the train as well? The unknown, the x-factor, that is the part that bothers me most of all.
I hear ya, Paul. The past year has been a seemingly never-ending effort to get enough qualifications to land my first stable job – one that I really want to be doing. I’ve gotten some great opportunities along the way, but there’s no room for comfort in today’s job market. Staying positive is the biggest thing, as long as you can stay positive you have a 1-up over the majority of people who will eventually give up pursuing exactly what they want to be doing.
Very frustrating Paul, as I’ve had my fair share of struggles with this before. I had to really sit down one day and decide, do I really want to be in sales the rest of my life? I did not, and at the rate I was going I felt I was only going to be limited to sales type of roles. I ended up making a change, and chose social media since this excited me and was something that I was doing on the side successfully with web 2.0 content and promotions for clients. As Corey mentioned, its best to stay positive as it sounds like you are!