While you have come to realize that your job, your career, is not your purpose, that doesn’t mean you have stopped looking for a new job. It simply means that you have realigned your priorities in life and finding a new job is something you do, not obsess over.
When I was first laid off, finding a job was an obsession. I spent hours every day scouring job sites. LinkedIn. The Ladders. Indeed. All of them. I had alerts set up to received emails with jobs that matched my skill set and criteria. I was so desperate to find a new job that I applied for EVERYTHING. And I took every interview I was offered, regardless of the position. It was all consuming. Hours every day.
Finding a job began to take over my life. Since I didn’t have a job as a purpose, my purpose was not to find a job. Let me tell you. It did not do good things to my state of mind. For every 10 jobs I applied for, I received outright rejections from 8. Never mind that they were jobs I never should have applied to in the first place. And I interviewed with everyone – even for positions I knew I wasn’t right for or wouldn’t be happy in. Not only was I wasting my time, but I was wasting the time of the people I was interviewing with. Not cool.
It took me a few months to finally realize that finding a job did not need to be all consuming. That I didn’t need to apply for every job out there, regardless of whether it was a fit or not. And that is when the weight, the stress, lifted. I stopped scouring the job sites and opening the email alerts as soon as they hit my inbox, and I stopped applying for every job that was open. I became more discerning, only applying for jobs I was interested in and met my criteria.
Sure, I still look for and apply to jobs each day. Well, okay. Not every day, but Monday through Friday. But I limit the time I spend looking to an hour. And I don’t scour every site and pounce on the emails when they hit my inbox. Actually, I ignore the emails that hit my inbox. All those jobs are on the job sites anyway. I stick to the sites that have the best chances of returning an actual match for a position I would be interested in from those who would be interested in me. Basically, I stick to The Ladders and LinkedIn.
Removing this stress has allowed me to focus on the other aspects of my life. The truly important aspects of my life. Finding a job may be something that you need – want – to do, but it doesn’t have to be stressful. It just needs to be done with intent and thoughtfulness. When the right position becomes available, you will find it and you will be ready for it.
