Our 10 red hot tips on how to stay motivated while job searching

RedSprout
RedSprout
Jul 10, 2017 · 5 min read

Be Realistic

You will fail. This might seem like a negative way to kick things off, but it is super important that you come to terms with this, not just for job searching, but for life in general. Nobody is successful all of the time, so it would be unreasonable to think that every click of that apply button is going to result in an interview invite or a job offer. That’s why we highly recommend that you remind yourself at the start of this process that failure isn’t necessarily failure, it’s just the unavoidable bump in the road on your journey to a new job.

Create the right environment

You’d be amazed how much your surroundings can sap motivation. Mess, clutter and distractions have never formed ingredients for success, so don’t be surprised by how little you get done in environments that contain them. That’s why it’s always a good idea to head up your job search from somewhere that you can stay focused. It doesn’t really matter where as long it has the essentials and provides the peace and quiet you need to stay on track.

Look to your heroes

Another annoying thing about failure is that it is easy to convince yourself that you’re getting a disproportionate amount of it. After all, it can be a bummer receiving a string of rejection emails or being locked out of your dream job by a minimum amount of experience threshold. The truth is that everybody has been in this situation at some point, including your career role models and workplace superiors, so it might be worth having a reassuring look at their employment history on LinkedIn to remind yourself that nobody lands a dream career on their first try.

Write out your career goals

You might think that your career goals are as clear as day in your head, but you’ll probably be surprised at how much easier they are to focus on once jotted down. The process of writing them out on paper should help you establish what you’ll need to accomplish in order to meet your employment aims, which is often a big help when you’ve lost your motivation or are struggling to come up with new ways to better yourself as a job candidate.

Make a list of dream employers

On the topic of lists, another useful one you can put together is a catalogue of places where you would love to work. It doesn’t even matter if they’re unrealistic in scope, because although there might not be much chance of you landing a job at NASA, it still might be useful to see what the average employee achieved to earn a position there. You can then pick out the recurring accomplishments that your dream employers are looking for, which will then provide you with yet another handy list, showing you the main areas in which you can focus on improving your employability.

Set yourself daily goals

Another big problem that burns out a lot of people when job searching is the feeling that you can’t possible do any more. It might feel like you’ve bettered yourself in every discernible way and are doing all that you can to find a job, yet still no luck. Once you get to this point, we advise that you try setting yourself an achievable to-do-list that you can systematically tick off each day, which will almost certainly serve as a better use of your time than frantically fretting about those quiet periods between interviews.

Ask for some constructive criticism

If it still feels like you’re getting nowhere with your job searching, but you don’t have a clue as to why, the answer could actually be right under your nose. For instance, you might believe that your CV is perfect or that your portfolio is on point, but if there is a glaring mistake in either of them then it is very unlikely that you’ll be the one to notice it. That’s why it’s never a bad idea to get some feedback from those around you, because a fresh pair of eyes might be just the thing that you application needs.

Don’t become obsessed

This list might be focused on ways in which to stay motivated, but at times it is possible to become too motivated. A common reaction to failure in a lot of people is going overboard to make up for it, but this can often work against you and lead you to lose sight of your goals, or cause you to start making silly mistakes. That is why it’s really important to take an occasional day off from job hunting, or focus on a hobby or pastime that allows you to unwind and take your mind off things for a while.

If at first you don’t succeed…

In all honesty, all the points on this list basically boil down to that same old cliché saying, because annoyingly it is actually a really solid mantra to live by. You might be at the point where it feels utterly impossible to stay motivated, claiming that you’ve had the worst luck imaginable and that there is absolutely no hope that you’ll ever find a job now, but no matter what you say you’ll never be immune to the law of averages. If you send just one CV out a day every day from this point forward, then sooner or later you’ll get lucky. So, no matter how hopeless it feels just try, try and try again.

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