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Managing the emotions of a Job Search can sometimes be the most challenging part of the process.
Emotions are naturally occurring, self-generating reactions that you cannot necessarily dictate, but
you can dictate how you manage and control them. The Job Search is a process without a known
result, at least not with a result you can know any specificity about. Ultimately you will find a job, but
when and what it will be is usually a mystery until it occurs. That uncertainty inherently and naturally creates
some level of stress, and sets a challenging backdrop for other steps of the process that will bring other
undesirable circumstances like, rejection and an apparent or real lack of courtesy in follow-up by hiring
organizations, and potentially some amount of loneliness.
Successfully managing through these emotions is in part aided by the knowledge that:
- you will, and should expect to experience a range of negative emotions (and some positive ones too);
- you are not alone in experiencing and coping with such emotions, it is a natural, common occurrence;
- with that knowledge and expectation, you can be ready for it and take it much more in stride during the process;
- there are certain well-known steps that can help take these in stride. These are discussed in the How-to-do-it
section that follows.
