The Job-Hunting Depression No One Talks About
I stopped applying to jobs. I’d lay in bed and scroll on TikTok all morning. I felt hopeless.
I’ve been on the job hunt for the last few months. I freelance and was working part-time but have since decided to search for something more stable.
This isn’t my first job-hunting rodeo. I was prepared for rejection. I was prepared to be flexible with where I wanted to be. But I also had seven years more work experience than I did the last time I was job-hunting. Surely, I was more qualified and therefore more likely to find a position faster than when I was fresh out of undergrad.
It seemed that was not the case.
I was spending 2–3 hours each morning applying to jobs, making sure I sent cover letters that were tailored to the specific company and taking my time to review all requirements of the application.
And every week I was faced with rejection after rejection. Or worse, silence.
As a writer applying to writing jobs (or similar), it’s hard not to take rejection personally. You think to yourself, was it my portfolio? It’s like rejection in dating: if I was good enough, of course, they would give me the job.
