For Those of Us in the Job Search

Raise your hand if you’re job or internship hunting right now.I feel you. It’s not fun, is it?This is the time of year when job and internship searches really pick up and become a part of our weekly or daily routines. February is a tough month; I want to start putting my name out there and making contact with a few places, but it’s still a little early to really apply to a slew of postings. Heck, I just ordered my business cards this past weekend, and my portfolio website is “under construction.”

A couple weeks ago, I had my first “job search freak-out” phone call with my mom. I’d just sent my first few “Hi, nice to meet you, let’s chat” emails to some interesting companies, and was starting to panic. I never had any trouble finding internships and jobs in the summers or on campus during college. I’d heard my friends’ struggle stories about their job searches, and thought, “Well darn, if they’re having trouble, what’s going to happen to me?” Bless my mother, after about 20 minutes, she calmed me down.
The job search is stressful from day one. It’s just how it goes, for everyone. You’ll rewrite your resume 20 times: tailoring it for a specific job, rewording a job under ‘Experience’ so it sounds more appealing, or fixing a sentence so that last word doesn’t cut off at the end and make a whole new line for half of a word. Or maybe that last one is just me.
You’ll write some cover letters. Lots of them, actually. They’re not always easy to write; it’s hard to write about yourself without sounding like you’re tooting your own horn. Once you find the right balance, though, it gets easier.
When searching for a job, you’ll probably have some idea of what kind of job you’d like, or where you’d like to be. Or maybe you have a “plan.” It’s perfectly okay to have these ideas in mind, but keep in mind that there’s a difference between “concentrating” in certain places and limiting yourself. It’s a tough balance to find and walk; I have to remind myself of that pretty often. Keeping an open mind is a huge part of the job search.

We make plans, and God laughs.

But perhaps the hardest part of the job search is just doing it all, over and over. And over, and over. I don’t remember the exact statistic, but these days, you have to send out nearly 100 resumes just to have a chance at an interview. Be resilient and patient, and remember to have some humility. No job is below anyone. Apply for everything. Take risks. You know that job listing that sounds amazing but you think, “they’d be crazy to even respond to someone like me”? Apply for it anyway. You never know. What’s the worst that could happen?

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Stay patient. Reach out. We’re all in it together. If you feel stressed or panicked, remember that you’re not alone.

It will work out.