Stop Spinning Your Wheels: How to Reinvigorate Your Job Search
A common popular definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over — and expecting a different result. Sound familiar?
If you’ve been using the same job search tactics, searching the same online job sites and sending the same resume — over and over again — you likely see the same result: Nothing.
If you want a new result, stop spinning your wheels (after all, you’re not a hamster, and probably don’t find it the least bit enjoyable).
Reinvigorate Your Job Search: 6 Ways to Reenergize Your Efforts
Whether you’re looking to find a new opportunity to advance within your profession or make a broader career change, these strategies can help you breathe new life into your job search.
1. Assess your motivation.
Before you do anything else, take a moment to reflect.
Can you remember how vigorously you approached finding your very first job out of college? Are you approaching your career exploration or job search with the same commitment now?
Your motivation fuels your efforts. Many clients tell us that they crave the excitement and engagement they felt earlier in their careers. If the hamster wheel has become too familiar, you might need to remind yourself why you’re seeking a change in the first place.
Read our related post: What’s Your Why?
2. Identify inspiration.
What energizes you?
Sometimes answers come from conversations with others. Plenty of people are highly engaged in their work and lives. Even if their interests are different than yours, their positivity can be contagious. One conversation might be just what you need to reinvigorate your job search.
Here’s an exercise we often assign clients who feel stuck in their career journey:
Pretend you’re a journalist.
Find five people who love their jobs.
Interview them.
Ask them what they love about their jobs.
Use their enthusiasm to spark yours.
You can also broaden your thinking about what aspects of “work” you find satisfying. What other activities boost your energy or align with your sense of self? Do you volunteer? Enjoy mentoring? Pursue personal/professional development because you love learning?
Consider ways to expand your job search to include some of those elements.
3. Be creatively proactive.
Applying to jobs online seems to make sense; companies list openings, and you look and see if you fit into them. But statistically, it’s not how the majority of people find their next job. If that’s all you’re doing, you’re not really conducting an effective job search.
Putting yourself at the mercy of these listings could mean missing out on creating potentially great opportunities. You need to get out and talk to people.
The hidden job market refers to jobs that are never listed online; some estimates say that it comprises 80 percent of all new hires. (If you’re a job seeker spending all day online, this is a harsh wake-up call!)
When conducting a job search, you have more agency than you might realize. Do you want to work for a company with a work-life balanced/family-friendly/ collaborative/competitive/promotes-from-within culture? Conduct the research. Build target lists and reach out to companies that appeal to you and align with your values.
4. Build new relationships.
Despite the prevalence and power of technology, relationships drive successful careers. Network. Network. Network.
Hate that word? OK, let’s call it something else: how about curious conversations, with people you’ve strategically identified? People who might shed some light on a company, culture, or industry you’re considering?
You bring the curiosity and appropriate professional questions, and the person you’ve chosen answers honestly and candidly. You’re not asking for help getting a job. Instead, you’re asking for insights, suggestions, and ideas based on their experience, to help inform the direction and decisions you’re making.
Breathing new life into your job search sometimes means shifting gears. Attending different gatherings. Taking new classes. Making new — and rekindling old — connections.
It can actually be fun if you’re open to it.
Read our related post: LinkedIn: Just Use It! For Networking
5. Find your muse.
If you feel like your inspirational well is running dry, consider a subscription to a daily email to stimulate your creativity, intellectual curiosity and emotional energy. Many are free, and some (*) charge a modest fee that, for me, is well worth it.
A few of my favorites:
What are yours?
Adding inspiration to your life will make you a better job seeker, a more appealing candidate — and a more energized partner, parent and friend.
Sparking your creativity in one area often translates to others.
6. Take a break.
I know ... You can’t afford to take a break. You need this new job. You don’t have time.
The truth is, you might be too focused on your job search. Work is only part of your life. Don’t neglect the other things (or people) that keep you going.
Sometimes taking a break is the best way to recharge your batteries. Take a walk. Meet a friend for coffee. Read a chapter in that new book you bought last week. Or, dare I say it? Find an hour, even a half hour, and dare to do nothing.
When you return to the drawing board, you’ll find renewed energy to reinvigorate your job search.
A sound strategy is the foundation of a successful job search.
Our career coaching programs are custom-designed to help you reach your goals.
Schedule your free consultation now.