Struggling with Self Confidence

A lack of self confidence can ultimately sabotage your job search.  It’s not uncommon to lose self confidence and feel rejected while job searching, especially if you are not moving forward as quickly as you would like; however, its important to keep an eye on your struggling self confidence in order to remain productive. 

When struggling with low self confidence, people will often create barriers that prevent them from reaching their full potential.  Remember your strengths and successes – jot down what makes you shine in your career, what you have been complimented on in the past and what makes you a success in your industry.  Its easy to lose sight of the things that we do the best, especially when we are feeling low on ourselves and our accomplishments.

Keep active and participate in the extra curricular activities that you enjoy doing in order to keep yourself in a positive light.  The more down on ourselves that we get, the worse our confidence will suffer.  Staying connected to friends and family and the things that we enjoy in our lives will help prevent job search burn-out and feelings of doubt. 

It's important try and avoid being too hard on yourself.  It's ok if you make a mistake; life is about making mistakes so that we learn from them.  During your job search, you may not be chosen for every opportunity that you apply for but if you take the time to reflect on the interview that went wrong or the resume that was not tailored well enough, then you will learn for the next experience. 

~Sunny & Sassy

Tips on How to Discover Motivation When Confronted with a Sense of Failure

For some jobseekers, failure may begin to feel common place. Feelings of despair and depression may begin to set in. 

If you are experiencing a sense of failure, you are not alone! It is not uncommon to feel this way, especially if you have been unemployed for an extended period of time. However, it is important to acknowledge and deal with your feelings.

The first step in dealing with a feeling of failure is to realize that failure is inevitable. We all fail in various ways and for various reasons. And it's how we deal with failure that will make the difference when it comes to our motivation and the impact that failure has on our well-being.
It is also important to recognize that failure can, in fact, be a motivator, pushing us to do better. And dealing with failure teaches us how to survive.

 Some tips on how to discover motivation when confronted with a sense of failure are:

• Learn from your mistakes - ie)  if you feel that you didn't perform well in a job interview, take a few minutes after the interview and ask yourself what you would do differently. You may benefit from jotting down a few notes so that you don't forget. Once you've determined what you can improve on, utilize your new awareness in your next interview.
• Find the positive in a negative situation. This may be difficult to do however, search for the positive - ie) Possibly the job was not the best fit for you and it is best that you were not offered the position. Remind yourself that you can use your experience to do better next time.
• Recognize that failing at a task does not mean that you are a 'failure'. To error is human. Everyone makes mistakes. Learn from it and move on.
• Talk to someone who is supportive. It's okay to release your feelings of failure, but in doing so, it is important to find someone who is positive and supportive to speak to. Choosing to disclose to someone who you think may focus on the negative will not be productive and will bring you down.
•  Express your emotions in a creative way ie) journal, write, draw, play music, dance, etc. If you feel you are not able to do this, release your feelings through sports, exercise etc. Set a goal for yourself and reach it.

Be persistent and determined and turn your feelings of failure into a sense of motivation! And before you know it, you will find the light at the end of the job search tunnel.

                                                                                                                                         -Sunny + Sassy

Adding a special touch to your resume

Todays job market is highly competitive; your strong networking skills, cover letter and resume is what will let you succeed in landing the perfect position!

We recently read an article about creativity and your resume and we strongly agree that in order for your resume to get noticed - it needs to stand-out in the pile!!

So many resumes are basic these days, making the employer bored and uninterested while sifting through thousands of the same resumes in the pile.  

Ensuring your resume has the proper information and is tailored to the specific job you are applying for is only going to take you so far; get creative -

add a border, add a dynamic "personal profile" or add graphics, etc if that is related to the occupation you are seeking.

You can also do a Google search for various resume formats and use them as guides when creating your own resume.

~Sunny & Sassy