CREATING YOUR CAREER GAME PLAN
Have a few practice interviews If your anxiety stems from the idea of sitting down for an interview, approach your campus career services, seniors, or some friends to help you simulate an interview. This will help you find any blind spots you may have and refine your answers, and also help get more comfortable with doing interviews, which should help ease your nerves. There’s no shame in seeking help. Interviewing and talking to people in professional settings are learnt skills. So seek coaching for it if you can. After a few rounds of practice interviews, you’ll be a lot more prepared. This can give you a leg up against any competition you’ll be coming up against. Don’t forget to practise for video interviews as well! Both online and in-person interviews have their own unique quirks, so you need ample time to familiarise yourself with both.
Look after yourself
Keep in mind that it’s easy to tell yourself something like, “I’ve graduated in the middle of this recession-recovery cycle and I’ll never find a job”. But on top of being fantastically inaccurate, all you’re doing to yourself by repeating that is adding on to your anxiety. Instead, keep the voice in your head to something more positive. Examples include: “This may be hard, but I’ll eventually get a job I want!” or “I’ve done what I can do, and I have no regrets!” If you find that staying upbeat gets tiring after a while, consider meditation to remain focused and well-rested. This will help you keep dark thoughts at bay.
Learn to enjoy the journey
You may find yourself going through all kinds of highs and lows during your job hunt, whether it’s finally landing your dream job or getting lost – figuratively on an online platform and literally directionwise when going down for a physical interview – on the day of your interview. You’ll even build skills like resilience and discover things about yourself that you never knew before. But above all, remember that this is a journey, not a race. You’ll emerge from it having learned and grown from all the experiences you’ve had along the way, one way or another. So take a step back every once in a while, enjoy the ride and trust that everything will be all right in the end, so long as you keep your eye on the prize.
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