Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter speaks about the emotional toll job hunting can take and what you can do about it.
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I thought I would do a show about the emotional side of job hunting because most of what I deal with in the shows involves tactics… Strategies… Things along those lines. There’s an emotional side, and emotional toll that comes with job hunting.
A lot of people come home from work and develop procrastination skills.
“This is hard.”
“I’m too tired.”
Or maybe you’re not working because you’ve lost your job and you start spending a lot of time staring at the refrigerator and what’s in it.
Or suddenly you start drinking or getting high in different ways.
I just want to point out that these are common and maladaptive responses (bad responses) to your circumstances. You are far better off doing two things:
Getting coaching advice to help you with your job search or working on the emotional issue that’s causing the anxiety or depression that’s causing you to take out your fears in these kind of ways.
You’re not good to any employer if you walk in with a hangover. It’s not that they’re going to know that you have a hangover but you’re just not going to perform well on your interviews. United to get job so easily if your pantsuit doesn’t fit you properly.… If your blouse or shirt opens in inappropriate places.… It just doesn’t work.
Better to spend time on a treadmill if you are out of work or if you are working. Better to spend time on a crosstrainer. Better to spend time doing meditation, rather than acting out from your frustrations/fears/depression rather than in ways that are going to hurt you. And they will hurt you unfortunately.
No one really talks about this stuff but I see it all the time in my work as a headhunter and as a coach. I talk to people who are panicked (and understandably so). They are down to their last dollars. They are becoming frightened. They are talking to be because they are hoping that I can find something for them quickly and I can’t.
Companies have their own timeline and it’s not like you can pressure them into acting differently because they don’t care about your circumstances; they are trying to hire the best person for themselves.
Work on the emotional side of you looking for work. If you are working and you’re procrastinating about looking for work, if you’re not doing the kind of things to develop your skills or network properly, to post your resume on job boards, to respond to ads, to contact recruiters, what’s that really about? What are you frightened about that’s keeping you from doing that? What’s at risk for you to take the appropriate steps to act in the right way?
Lord knows, you don’t want to be in your current job and there is a fear of going to the next one. You need to solve that in order to break free. Unfortunately, it takes some time and take some effort.
I happen to do coaching but if you want to contact someone else, that’s certainly fine. I have a lot of videos that deal with tactics and strategies… That can help you break through some things but fundamentally this is an emotional issue. I trained as a therapist for a lot of years, practiced for a lot of years, I can help you.
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Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.
The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.
JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.
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