Job searching can be among the most professionally challenging and personally vulnerable times in your life, you can go from feeling full of hope and excitement to feeling invaluable and unemployable daily.

Entering a job search can be overwhelming and leave you feeling like you are a sales person and the product you are selling is yourself. Often, we end up on the job market for longer than we would like or end up in a disappointing cycle of rejection after rejection without any clue of how to improve your candidacy. Shaking off disappointment and persisting is not easy, but with changes to your mindset and your approach to job searching you can maintain inner confidence and have trust in the job seeking process.

If you feel stuck in a disappointing job search, here are 5 tips to make an effective use of your time and get hired:

Set Goals and Keep Yourself Organized

Make job searching, your full-time job until you find the perfect job. Set a reasonable daily goal of how many jobs you want to apply for and stay organized by keeping an Excel spread sheet of every job you apply for and make note of each time you have activity (reach outs, phone calls, interviews, etc) regarding that job. This process will effectively ensure that you don’t let any opportunities slip away and that when a hiring manager calls you, there will not be any misunderstanding of which role they are calling about!

Tip: Putting yourself and skills on the market can be exhausting and time consuming, avoid burn outs and feeling overwhelmed by setting realistic goals that are suitable for your lifestyle.

Volunteer and Keep Your Resume Continuous

Gaps in between positions on your resume can be difficult to explain to potential employers and can be inaccurately portrayed as unstable or not being dedicated to your career. To avoid these unpleasant conversations and a lack of personal momentum that can come with being unemployed, be sure to keep your resume going!

Here are some things you can do while job searching that will add value to your resume:

• Volunteer at an organization that is meaningful to you and your career field
• Reach out to friends and family who run businesses and see if you can do some pro-bono work or specialized projects that would be mutually beneficial
• Contact a local temporary staffing company like PACE, to pick up some temporary roles to expand your resume and get your foot in the door of important companies

Learn New Skills and Create More Value

Take an online course, a LinkedIn learning course, go to a lecture, or do personal projects that relate to your field and post them to a blog or your LinkedIn profile! By continuously adding more skills to your resume, you are creating more value for potential employers and keep your learning skills active!

Schedule Informational Interviews

Reach out to someone in your network who is in the industry or role that interests you and ask if you can take them to coffee and chat about how they got into that industry, what they like best about their role and any other questions you have that may be an asset for your job search and career going forward.

Don’t know anyone?  Scout LinkedIn for people in roles that interest you and schedule an informational interview to gain information and insights that can assist you in entering a new role or field. Informational interviews are also great for letting those in your network know that you are on the job market and they may have knowledge of an open role or be able to give you a referral!

Tip: Be sure to come prepared with a list of questions and a notebook to take notes!

Trust the Process

Focusing in on one goal or getting too invested in a particular job can set you up for disappointment so it can be much more beneficial to trust the process and treat each job you apply for as equally important and give 100% of your effort.

The most successful job seekers are those who wake up every day and choose to trust the process rather than getting overwhelmed with end goals.  They apply to jobs every day, go to all the interviews they are chosen for, and put in excellent effort when answering interview questions thoroughly and effectively. Instead of incessantly thinking about the end goal and setting closed-minded expectations, they embrace the unknown and walk into each day with the goal of doing their very best on that days’ applications and interviews.

A large part of learning how to trust the process comes in how you approach rejection. Maintaining a sense of inner confidence and hope isn’t easy when you aren’t chosen for a job or don’t get a call back from a hiring manager, but it is what will allow you to end up in a great role that is the perfect fit for you!

PACE Staffing Network is one of the Puget Sound’s premier staffing /recruiting agencies and has been helping  Northwest job seekers find their “just right” jobs for over 40 years.

A  3 time winner of the coveted “Best in Staffing” designation , PACE is ranked in the top 2% of staffing agencies nationwide based on annual surveys of customer satisfaction.

PACE provides multiple placement options….

• Direct Placement – Full or Part Time
• Temp to Hire Auditions
• Short or Long Term Temporary or Contract Assignments – Full or Part Time

Our services for job seekers include….

• Resume reviews and consultations
• Access to the “Hidden Job Market”
• Insider intros to TOP Employers HIRING NOW
• Confidential Job Searches
• Professional Career Guidance

There is NEVER A FEE for using our services. 

We provide paid absence and healthcare benefits for employees assigned to work at client sites thru our services. .

To learn more about how one 2 minute application can open doors to a full range of PACE placement services plus introductions to local employers hiring now,  contact PACE’s candidate services team at 425-637-3301 or e mail candidates services at candidateservices@pacestaffing.com.