Coping with Job Search Anxiety

Don’t let anxiety, self-doubt, or comparisons with your peers drag you down in your job search process. Here are tips to help you cope with these negative feelings and manage your mental well-being.

Global pandemic aside, searching for your first job (or internship) is a big life change in and of itself, and can scare even the most well-prepared graduates during the best of times.

With all the uncertainties in the market right now, perhaps you’re feeling that anxiety more than ever. You may be worried about your odds of landing your dream job even though the local economy’s recovering from the recession, wondering how you match up to other jobseekers, or worried that you don’t have what it takes to catch employers’ eyes.

These feelings are perfectly valid and normal. You just need to know how to handle them in a more productive manner instead!

You may have friends who’ve already landed positions before graduation, or seem to have no problems getting interviews lined up. Or maybe your parents keep talking about how soand-so’s son or daughter just got a nice, cushy job with their dream employer.

But here’s the thing. That has nothing to do with you! So don’t compare yourself with others.

The job search process is not a race, and positions aren’t going to “run out”. Everyone has their own unique circumstances, and will find success at different times. Keep your anxiety at bay by actively reminding yourself of this. Job descriptions are crucial, but they only give you a glimpse into what careers are like. So instead of scratching your head and trying to fill in the blanks, get out there – physically or virtually – and talk to people who’re already in the workforce instead of just browsing for jobs all day!

You don’t necessarily have to look far. Try connecting with your seniors from university, talk to relatives, or friends of friends. Even if they’re not in the field you want to enter, you can still learn a thing or two.

Ask them about their day-to-day tasks, get to know the challenges they face, or talk to them about your anxiety in finding a job and see what advice they have to offer. Make sure to sit back and reflect on what you’ve learned from them as well.

Hearing from others who’ve gone ahead of you will help you realise just how temporary your fears really are. Not only that, but you may even reach a new understanding about what you really want out of your career, which will help you with expressing yourself in applications and interviews too!

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.

Don’t compare yourself to your peers Talk to other professionals

Have a few practice interviews

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. 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 direction-wise 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.