How to turn “Fear” into a job search ally
Don’t let fear sabotage your job search. Fear is either a “guide” or a “jailer” and it’s up to you to decide which one you would like it to be.
Fear is a natural, emotional response to being in an uncomfortable or stressful situation. And being on the job market any time, but especially in tough times, easily fits that bill. Fear itself, is neither good nor bad; it’s how you respond to fear that determines that.
The only way fear can be good is if you make it work for you. How? Fear has an amazing ability to guide you to the very things you need to understand and master. The key is to respond to fear intellectually, not emotionally. When you respond emotionally the most common result is paralysis.
Four Easy Steps
Analyze.
The first step is to probe your fears. Ask yourself why you feel a certain fear. Don’t settle for vague or emotional responses.
Why are you worried?
I’m worried about landing a job.
Why are you worried about landing a job?
Deep down I’m feeling lost and I’m not sure how to start or execute an effective job search.
What specifically don’t you know or understand?
I don’t know the specific steps I should be taking.
I don’t know how to sell myself effectively.
I don’t know how I compare to other candidates.
These answers provide insight and point us to the specific actions we must take to achieve our goals - in this case, landing a job. How?
Identify and take action.
Turn your fears into questions and develop an action plan to understand and master these points.
How do I conduct a strong job search? What specific steps should I be taking? What can I do to answer these questions?
- Contact colleagues who have conducted recent job searches and gain real life insights. What would they do again? What would they do differently?
- Read books that describe job search techniques.
- Speak with job search experts, including recruiters, human resource professionals, etc and get advice from them.
- Seek help from an outplacement service.
How do I sell myself effectively?
- Define your strengths. Understand what you have to offer.
- Contact close colleagues who can share their perceptions with you about what they consider to be your strengths and weaknesses.
- Put together a personal value proposition that encapsulates your strengths and shows how you can provide value to an organization or position.
How do I match up to other candidates? What do I have that they don’t?
- Contact colleagues you trust to get their insights about how you fair against similar professionals.
- Ask “How can I improve myself?”
- Ask people who interview you. “How to I match up against the other candidates? In which ways to I stand out and in which ways might I not?”
This simple example shows how probing your fears can guide you to the very actions you need to take.
The process is to analyze, identify, take action, and master. Using this technique turns fear into a powerful tool. And you will find fear diminishes as you take action and stop feeling paralyzed.
The final step: Prioritize.
People tend to fixate on whatever problem is top of mind. Your primary concern will take precedence over all other fears. For this reason it’s important to evaluate and prioritize your worries to ensure the most important concern is front and center.
The best example is of the two fears that rack most job seekers – the overriding concern about landing “any” job at all and the secondary concern of landing in the “wrong” job.
Statistically, these fears should be switched. Why? Because the likelihood anyone with a modicum of experience and talent won’t land any job at all is extremely slim, but the likelihood of landing a job that is a poor fit is extremely high. Statistics show that 35% of all new hires fail within 18 months. There are many reasons why new hires might fail, but with such a high failure rate, there’s no doubt, many jobs weren’t right for the people from the very start.
One reason so many people end up in jobs that aren’t right for them, is that they allow their fear of not landing a job to hijack their job search. As a result, landing any job becomes the priority and landing the right job becomes just a secondary concern. Make certain this doesn’t happen to you.
Many good, decent people come to me and ask what they must do to land a particular job. What must they say? What should they do? How should they act? Creating a facade that meets the expectations of an employer are far more likely to lead to a job that is a poor fit. If their primary concern turned instead to landing in the wrong job, then these very questions about what to say, what do do, and how to act would become moot because creating a false facade would work against one’s own interest.
When people’s greatest fear is landing in the wrong job there is typically no facade, because a facade will only hide the real you and make it more difficult to determine if a fit exists or not. The best way to proceed is to just be yourself. If you are truly right for the job and you are just being yourself, you will almost always resonate more powerfully with the company and its representatives.
Don’t fear fear. Instead turn it into a job search ally.
