5 Ways to Cope with a Difficult Job Hunt

Job hunts are notoriously stressful. Financial pressures, career concerns and constant assessment can leave job seekers feeling anxious. What’s more frustrating is the impact stress can have your candidacy, affecting everything from confidence to time keeping.

So how can you break the cycle and give yourself the psychological skills to get through this testing time? Here are five ways to pressure-proof yourself.

Be Patient

Patience is a virtue. It’s a cliché but it’s true. And it’s never more useful than during a job hunt. With long applications and even longer waiting times, it pays to be patient.

Start by focusing on the physical side. Impatience can cause involuntary tension, so consciously focus on relaxing your body. Drop your shoulders, massage your jaw and straighten your spine. You may not even have noticed how tense you were. Acknowledging it is half the problem.

Secondly, push yourself to slow down. Speaking, breathing and moving slower will make a real difference. Remember, impatience rarely makes others move faster.

Be Persistent

From first time job seekers to hot-shot CEOs, all of us struggle with persistence. While setting goals may seem easy, following them through is much harder. Here are a few tips to help.

Get yourself an accountability partner. Hitting goals is much easier when you have someone to report to. It could be anyone, your brother, your sister, even your window cleaner. Persistence is easier when you’re not going it alone.

Schedule your priorities. To do lists can buckle under the pressures of time, so set out clearly what tasks are most important and tick them off one by one. Get it scheduled, get it done.

Be Resilient

Resilience is the trademark of an excellent employee. The ability to keep calm under pressure is invaluable. But while some think resilience comes naturally, it can also be learned. So keep this in mind.

Focus on your abilities. Rejection letters can leave you doubting your employability so never forget about your positive attributes. Self-esteem not only diminishes stress but makes you instantly more appealing to employers.

Expect the Unexpected

Studies have shown that the best job hunters not only accept setbacks, they expect them. With employers getting more and more creative with their recruitment, top candidates brace themselves for everything thrown at them.

Start every application with a conscious realisation that there may be one or two surprises along the way. Jot down a few potential scenarios and think how you would handle them. This multi-dimensional point of view is a pillar of optimism.

Embrace Imperfection

Too many of us feel the need to enter the workplace with every skill imaginable but, remember, nobody’s perfect. The best jobs will hone and improve your existing abilities so don’t expect to know everything on day one.

Acknowledging your weaknesses not only eases stress but makes you a much stronger prospect to employers. Candidates who know how they want to improve often have a better work ethic and won’t wobble when problems arise.

Ed Jones writes for Inspiring Interns, which specialises in sourcing candidates for internships. To browse our graduate jobs London listings, visit our website.