4 Ways to Manage Your Energy During a Job Search
Participating in a job search means that we are being put under a microscope and we are being examined. We are being critiqued by people we don’t know and by systems we don’t understand. We know what stress can do to us and more importantly what it can do to a job search. Here is how a Harvard Business Review article puts it:
“Under stress, some job candidates may end up choosing a role they don’t really want, submitting half-hazard applications that aren’t unique enough to stand out, or burn out before even entering the interview process.”
Therefore, managing your energy during a job search is extremely important. After all, the average amount of time it takes to find a new job in 2024 is 5-6 months and it can take even longer depending on your industry, job type and location. Here are a few tips to manage your energy through this process.
Pace Yourself
Unless you're in an urgent situation, like being laid off, it's important to pace yourself and spread your efforts over time. This approach helps maintain your well-being throughout the process. If you are laid off and looking for work, you might not have the luxury of spreading out your job search tasks, but you still have to find ways to manage your time. Know when you are most productive and concentrate on getting the most difficult work done during those times. When do you feel most alert and forgiving of yourself?.
Motivational guru, Brian Tracy, coined the phrase “Eat the Frog” as a productivity hack that helps us do the things we hate first thing in the day. In other words, get the stuff we hate out of the way first so we have time to pace ourselves the rest of the day.
Emotional Management
Remember, there is no crying in job searching. Allow yourself 24 hours to reflect and rebound from any setbacks. Accept that some things are beyond your control. If you believe in fate, understand that the jobs you didn't get weren't meant for you. Your blessings won't be blocked. For context, recent data show the average job seeker conducts 2 to 4 interviews for every 20 applications and 10 to 20 interviews total over the course of a 6 month period.
So, even if you’re “doing good” in your job hunt, it’s still a difficult process and can be an even longer and thankless process depending on a range of external forces. This context should also help you put your results in perspective. Don’t beat up on yourself if you’re not getting callbacks for everything you apply to!
Stay Open and Move On
Stay open to new opportunities and be ready to move onto a different path if one doesn't work out for you. It's important to recognize that job searching involves honest self evaluation, which can be uncomfortable. Waiting can be a big part of your frustration, therefore keep on offense. No matter how promising the interview was, keep looking, keep applying. Don’t just wait. Often that is when self doubt creeps in. Keep moving forward.
Reward Yourself
We know the goal is to step toward finding work that better aligns with your values, interests, skills and abilities. However, work is not all you are. If you forget that during the job search, it makes it more stressful to find something better. Reward yourself in small ways for getting some things done. For example, celebrate when you get a screening phone call, because it means your resume was effective. Celebrate when you complete an interview because it means your resume and screening call worked. It could be a walk, a dance, an hour with music you love. Rewards don’t have to be grand. They just have to remind you that you are human, with human feelings who knows that what you are doing is not easy, but necessary.
Dr. Marcia F. Robinson, SPHR, SHRM-SCP is the CEO of The HBCU Career Center. She’s an award-winning HR and leadership expert with 25 years of experience in HR and Career Development Education. Known as Dr. R, she’s on a mission to make workplaces more inclusive and to help professionals find welcoming spaces that align with their V.I.S.A. (Values, Interests, Skills and Abilities).