Are you having one of those days (weeks?) where you're just not in the mood to apply for roles?

We can work with that.

Most of our clients do get traction applying online - so actually applying for a jobs is a key part of our strategies.

(If your applications aren’t getting you traction, please reach out. We can help!)

But the job search process has ups and downs and sometimes you just don’t have it in you!

Today, I’m sharing some alternative strategies so that you can move your job search forward, even if you’re struggling to get those applications out.

#1 Take your job search offline.

If you’re not finding lots of jobs the year to apply to (or even willing to apply to),  consider taking your job search offline for a week or two.

It can be really demoralizing to reload LinkedIn and indeed.com, day after day, hour after hour, and not find something that you’re looking for.  It makes the job search feel all the more daunting.

The good news is that there are lots of things that you can do that don’t require job postings.

This is a great time to reach out to the people in your network, including friends, family, and former colleagues to let them know that you’re on the hunt! Spend some time reflecting on the work that you’ve done and where you’d like to go next so that you can share a concise message of what it is that you’re looking for with some of the people who know you best.

It’s also an opportunity to research specific companies by going on to their website, reading bios of their employees, and perhaps reaching out to people doing interesting work by sending an email. 

#2 Stop waiting for the perfect job

My clients take their work seriously. They’re ambitious and creative and they want work that is fun, interesting, and challenging.

Honestly, it can be pretty difficult to determine a good job from a bad job or from a great job by a job posting alone.

When we’re not seeing opportunities that light up and excite us, it might also mean that we set some unrealistic expectations.

A boring sounding job could have great benefits a supportive team and room for growth.

A position that’s perhaps a bit junior for your experience could provide a great work-life balance and maybe the salary will be higher than expected!

Unfortunately, it can be really hard to know a good opportunity unless you apply and get the chance to learn more about the opportunity.

A really simple way to check your expectations is to start writing jobs on a scale of 1 to 10.   

Anything between a 1 and a 3 would be considered the worst jobs ever.  Anything between 5 and 7 would be considered reasonable these will be jobs that have some great perks but weren’t ideal for one reason or another.

Make a commitment to apply for jobs that look or sound like they would be a 5 or above - and see what happens!

#3 Trust yourself to make the right decisions

If you’re in a job where you’re unhappy, mistreated, undervalued, overworked,  and/or underpaid,  I bet you’re concerned about ending up in another job just as bad or worse than the one you have now.

These sorts of underlying fears drive our inaction.

The best way to fix a career gone awry is simply to spend plenty of time assessing what’s not working now and what you’ll look for in the future instead.

Burnout jobs are part of the process.  They are there to teach us about our limits and boundaries and to give us a breadth of experience that we can use in many other settings.

Increase your confidence by spending time thinking about what you’ve learned, how your values have changed, and how you can honor that in your next position.

#4 Take a break

Applying for jobs is critical for most job seekers.

Applying 24/7 is not.

In order to stay focused on our goals and maintain the consistency required in the job search process, it’s important to take a break sometimes.

Give yourself permission to try unplugging from the process once in a while.