6 Ways to Stay Positive and Motivated in Your Job Search

Your job search has big goals – and a big effect on your future happiness. When you’re looking for the perfect job needle in the haystack of ill-fitting options, it’s easy to get discouraged.

But while you can get discouraged, it doesn’t pay to stay that way! Here are six ways to stay positive and motivated while you search for your next big thing:

1. Shake up your routine. Even a productive job search routine can be discouraging when it’s the same thing every day. Shake up your routine by moving your daily job search work to a new location (like a local coffee shop), spending the day at a job fair, or just by revamping your application materials to discover new ways to describe your hard-earned abilities and skills.
2. Revamp your social media image. Increasingly, hiring managers are checking out applicants’ social media presence to get a “feel” for the person and their work before extending an invitation to an interview. Reenergize yourself by including links, samples, or examples of your best accomplishments on your LinkedIn profile and other social media sites.
3. Volunteer with a cause you love. Invigorate your job search by stepping away from it for a while. Instead, volunteer with a cause that matters to you. Take the opportunity to work on “soft skills” like communication and organization, or volunteer to tackle a task that uses the same skills you’re offering employers. Put your volunteer work online and in your application materials to show that you’re getting better at your job – even when you’re not on the job.
4. Spend some “networking” time not talking about work. It’s important to connect with your professional network when you’re job searching. But it’s also important to connect with people who support your career in a non-job-related context as well. Make plans to get together with at least one colleague this week, and spend time talking about things other than your job search.
5. Take a temp job. A temp job can motivate your job search in several ways. It gets you back on the job, doing the work you love while you search for a long-term position. It also gives you a “trial run” with the employer to decide whether you want to apply in the future. And you’ll be building your skills and developing current references.
6. Connect with a recruiter. Stuck in a job-search slump? Talk to a recruiting firm. They can help you find the motivation to keep going and reduce the time you’ll spend on the hunt.

At FootBridge Energy Services, our experienced recruiters focus on placing oil and gas industry professionals with great companies in the energy industry. For help powering through your job search to the position you’re looking for, contact us today.