Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

Job hunting can be a very frustrating and soul-crushing experience. You spend hours browsing job portals and responding to offers, and in return, you’re often met with radio silence or rejections, or worse, you get your hopes up to have them later crushed again. And again. Chances are you’re going to need a lot of patience and perseverance to land a great-sounding job but the most important thing is to take care of your well-being during the process and try to not let it affect you negatively too much. Here are a few tips on how to handle hunting for your next awesome (or at least acceptable) job.

Don’t take it personally

Being rejected for a job, be it just based on your resume or after you’ve interviewed with the company, can feel weirdly personal but it really isn’t. You might feel that your entire life and personality were scrutinized and consequently rejected by the recruiter but that’s really not the case. Even if you feel like you really hit it off over the phone or in person, you’re not friends with the people you talked to – you’re still just strangers that are testing the waters and looking for a good fit for each other.

There are so many reasons why recruiters eventually choose someone else than you for the position (with a good portion of them totally out of your control), that it’s pointless to take it personally and agonize about what is wrong with you. Nothing is wrong with you, it just didn’t work out for whatever reason.

And yeah, being rejected totally sucks and I definitely struggled to feel blasé about all of the rejections I got during my recent job hunt but I’ve come to realize that at least trying to keep things in perspective helped me to prevent my self-worth from completely shattering.

Give yourself a moment but don’t give up

It’s totally ok to feel sad or disappointed if you felt especially hopeful about a certain job or if you weren’t chosen for a position that sounded really great. You’re allowed to take a moment, grieve the lost opportunity a little bit, and do some self-care (for me, it happened to be watching a lot of Parks and Recreation).

Also, it might sound like a cliché but an even better offer can be around the corner, and at least you’re still free to take it. What people often don’t realize is that we can never be 100% sure that a certain position would be perfect for us and we would love every aspect of it. Accepting a job is usually a gamble because there are so many factors that play a role in us actually enjoying the whole work experience, and no job is perfect in all regards.

Brainstorm ways to up your game and stay sharp

After you took some time to relax and regroup, it’s time to get back to it. Quantity is key when it comes to job hunting. There IS a job for you out there but your chances of finding it among the first few positions you apply for aren’t necessarily that big (depending on the field and your circumstances).

There are also ways how you can up your game and improve your odds of completing this tricky mission. If you need to find a job sooner than later, reply to all of the positions that make at least a little bit of sense (even if you don’t meet all of the requirements), consider branching out to different fields or commuting for a while longer if you’re able and willing to. In short, unless you’re set on a very specific type of work, keep your mind and options open.

If you feel like taking some action while you’re waiting for recruiters to get back to you, there are certainly things you can do in the meantime. You can tinker with your resume to make it more succinct and visually appealing. If you’re applying for jobs in more than one field or ones that require different skills and experience, it’s a good idea to keep several versions of your resume, each of them highlighting the relevant and valuable stuff for the given type of work.

When it comes to preparing for an interview, learning some facts and recent news about the company and the field can come a long way. You might be also tested on skills that are needed for the position, like language and computer skills, so you can always brush-up on those at least a little bit in advance.

There are a ton of great educational resources out there (and a lot of them are free, too), including Youtube, sites like Coursera, Codecademy, or, my personal favorite, Skillshare, where you can take courses taught by professionals in the field, explore your interests and improve your skills. (If you use my link for Skillshare, you can try the site for 14 days for free and take as many courses as you want on various topics including graphic design, writing, web development, photography, business, finance, productivity, and many more. If you end up signing up using my link, I’ll get one month for free.)

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Do you have any thoughts or feelings about job hunting? Feel free to share them in the comments. :- )