Shauna Moerke is…

Job searching sucks. Trying to find opportunities sucks, the application process sucks, networking can suck, interviewing sucks, and rejection sucks. It all can be an emotionally draining and dehumanizing experience.

I’m just full of sunshine and bunnies today, aren’t I?

When I was young and the job markets were nicer (gotta get some “The Economy happened” blame in here too you see) I actually liked job hunting. Probably because I almost always got an offer for any job I applied for. I was confident and felt valuable to others. But as I got older and more experienced, it took more time and effort to land a job. Which in all honesty, it should. I wasn’t going for entry level retail/office jobs anymore after all. But it also made the process less fun, less ego stroking, because I started getting more rejections than offers.

Then I went through a long period of nothing after being laid off. Sure, I managed to get some temp jobs, but I still look at that year and a half before getting a “regular” job as a stressful black hole that sucked a lot of self-confidence out of me. Weeks of nothing followed by interviews that went nowhere. Rinse and repeat. For months. It sucked.

If you find yourself relating to the post so far then you are like a lot of people over the last few years. I would like to say that the process gets easier, but I won’t lie to you. Even as the economy recovers, and it will even if slowly, job hunting will probably still suck. Blame the companies, blame the government, blame the educational system, blame yourself; but it doesn’t matter who is at fault in the end. And sitting around blaming yourself or others won’t get you a job either.

So really, then, what is the point? The point is this: You have to believe that someone, somewhere, at some point, will hire you to do something… As long as you don’t give up. That’s it. No matter how much job hunting sucks, you can’t stop. That is not an option. Just like The Little Engine that could, you don’t give up. “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can…”. Keep applying, keep networking, keep learning, keep growing, keep searching, keep volunteering, keep stretching yourself, keep going.

To quote Winston Churchill, who is almost as cool as Thomas the Tank Engine, “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”

It will happen. I can’t promise you how long it will take or what you will be doing, but the only thing I can promise you is that giving up won’t make it better. So have faith in yourself and keep going.