You Need a Break from Job Searching
Job search fatigue. It’s a real thing.
You’ve been hitting the ground running in hopes of landing a job by the end of the year. Right now may seem like a conflicting time because you really want to meet this goal into the new year, but you might miss your next opportunity if you take a break.
I feel you because I’ve been through this exact thing.
I came across this tweet, and it took me back to a vivid memory of interviewing for a job.
It was late November 2011, and I was at my second interview for the day at NBC Universal. I was in my fourth month of job searching. Halfway through the interview, the recruiter stopped me and asked me how long I had been looking for a job. I told him four months, and he said, “You have to take a break. You’re experiencing job search fatigue.” It was in this interview where I learned about this. I told him I couldn’t afford to stop looking for a job. “What if I miss my chance?” He responded that I would miss my chance by showing up to interviews in the way that I just did. He said the fatigue showed up in my answers and body language. He could tell that I had been through it. Ya girl really was going through it emotionally, but I did not realize that I could no longer hide it.
I was embarrassed.
But he was right. The interviews were happening so often, and the results were the same that I stopped looking forward to them. I went through the motions, and I failed to put my best foot forward.
From that day forth, I switched up my strategy. I made sure I did not stay up all night applying for jobs, but instead, I got a good night’s sleep. I started scheduling my interviews a day apart and ensuring I did not have multiple interviews the same day. (As an introvert, this exhausted me.) Lastly, I made sure to take a holiday off to rest and get my mind right.
If you are experiencing job search fatigue, please stop, finish the committed interviews, but take the rest of the year off and start your search again in mid-January.
Give yourself the best chance to land your next job by giving yourself some well-earned rest.