Bolster Your Fortitude Job Hunters!

Job hunting… Not for the faint of heart, but also necessary for survival.

No matter what stage of the job hunt you are in, whether you are just graduating and looking for your first job or looking for a new adventure, the process is filled with ups and downs. I can only speak to how the process is today and not how it was for the generation before me, but I have found the process to be tedious, tiresome, and daunting.

When I interviewed for the job I currently have I had sent out 120 applications (I have the excel sheet to prove it!) and I had about 10 interviews before actually getting an offer. This process took 6 months (to be generous). While talking with friends about this process they concurred that ratio was what they were finding as well. People always say “it is who you know.” That may be true if you are trying to move up in your company or if they are already high up in their company and have pull with the hiring process. I have been fortunate to interview for a position and got that interview from knowing someone, but I have also gotten a lot of interviews through anonymously applying.

Today the majority of applications are handled by a third party software developed for collecting applications and from what I have found rarely (and I mean roughly 1 in 20) applications actually have an email address for hr or contact information that could allow you to reach out to an actual person to check on your application. Most of the time you hit ‘submit’ on the application and thats it until you get a form letter back saying you were passed up (if you are lucky) or you get an email from hr with the next steps. Then if you do get chosen to move to the next step there is still no guarantee for a job, because you don’t know who you are up against and what is on their resume. All you can do is your best in the interview and hope that it is enough.

It can be very demoralizing when you think everything has gone well and then you hear that you didn’t get it. At first you will be depressed and may even feel like you have no skills and will never find a job. The problem though, is that you have to keep going because you haven’t reached your ultimate goal… a job.

I have to believe that everything happens for a reason and sometimes we can get so excited over an opportunity only to be denied in the final stages, but sometimes we need that “hard bumper” to get refocused on our goals. We may need that stark reminder about why we started this process in the first place. This will help motivate you to keep going in your quest, because odds are eventually something will work out.

So for all you job hunters, happy hunting! Just remember:

“If you’re going through hell keep on going don’t slow down!” -Rodney Atkins