#022 Finding a job that sucks less
Questions and considerations when researching a job you want
Greetings and salutations!
To all of the new readers who’ve subscribed recently, welcome to The Practical Therapist.
At TPT, I cover a wide range of subjects because life comes in complicated combinations of great, odd, confusing, frustrating, wonderful, sad, exhilarating, scary, and wild experiences. From the normal everyday struggles of getting older and acceptance, to the current focus the past couple months on jobs and career, TPT tries to be intelligent and thoughtful, with a dash of the sarcastic and humorous.
Because life throws curveballs, and we need to address matters in a practical fashion for working through it, accepting it, and continuing to adapt. Also, today I’m a little spicy. I suppose it comes from being stressed.
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“We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious...and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
— Walt Disney
This month, things very much got away from me. Furniture was moved into a new apartment, I ordered items for my wedding that were then cancelled because they were suddenly out of stock and would be back-ordered until well after the wedding—by several months. Navigating finding a new job…
Life seems to come at break-neck speed.
Since we’re on the topic of new jobs, lets segue-way into the meat you’ve been waiting for.
But honestly, please avoid moving, getting married and finding a new job all at once. It’s a wee bit stressful.
And now for this week’s PSA issue:
Once upon a time…
People could pick up their local newspaper, flip to the “Classifieds” section, and comb the columns for listings emblazoned with banners that promised “Now Hiring”, “Temp Work”, “Full-Time” — for secretaries, laborers, clerks, teachers, and such sundry desiderata that included personal ads, items for sale, and all manner of odd and interesting adverts.
Classifieds do exist still—though the newspaper and magazine industry is still sputtering a slow and agonizing death—but finding a job appears to have become, somehow, a helluva lot tougher.
It would be fair to assume that you probably have perused a job site, like Indeed, LinkedIn, Monster, ZipRecruiter, or any number of other job posting-industry-specific places pertinent to your interests, either on your phone, or, less-strategically, on your work computer at the office, thereby leaving a digital trail for the IT department to track you during your active working hours.
Big Boss is watching you.
And I would love to tell you that such efforts are worth your time.
They can be, but I can attest from experience, it’s usually not.
A few years back, I read through “What Color is Your Parachute?” by Richard Bolles. He’d only been deceased for a couple of years at the time, but the information and the logic was still solid. There was a lovely pyramid, which I cannot reproduce here, that explained how most people find a job.
Postings on job boards and job sites was at the bottom. At the top, was networking and referrals—that is what leads to the most likely avenue to procuring work. To this day, practically every job or interview that I’ve had in the last four years came from being networked and referred by a friend:
a substance abuse rehab
working as a beta tester/grant application writer
short-term personal secretary
proofreader for publisher
current therapist position
A few months ago, I word-vommitted posted a terribly long piece1 on how frustrated and burned out I had been during the last year of my graduate school program. It’s even more financially brutal and harrowing for psychologists, but that’s a post for another day. Point being, during 2021 through August of 2022, I applied to more than 60 postings, almost all of which were on job boards.
Of that 60, I got seven job interviews—approximately a 10% rate of return, which is pretty poor. Zipjob2 reports with a good strategy, job seekers should be getting a return on investment of a 20-30% response rate.
But there are numerous factors at play. Let’s review what some of those variables may be that work against you:
Bear markets a.k.a. poor economy
Covid did us no favors, what with high demand on houses and on used cars, which was worsened by the manufacturing shortages and snarls in the transportation and logistics systems that our economy and world is so thoroughly dependent on.
When the economy isn’t doing well, companies scale back on hiring. A friend of mine works at Capitol One—who has an unofficial partial hiring freeze—announced a layoff in January of approximately 1,100 workers. They go to the mattresses, gird their loins, and prepare for tough times.
During the pandemic, there were 22 million jobs lost,3 with an approximate 14% unemployment rate, the highest since the Great Depression, so says the NYT, that bastion of honest reporting and journalistic integrity. Whatever the true number, millions of people struggled with under-employment or unemployment, and it packed a hell of a wallop on our rates of depression, anxiety and other MI issues.4
Applicant Tracking Systems
The bane of the existence of all potential job seekers, ATS.
There are probably a thousand different things to say about ATS. If you’ve never heard of it, it is at its simplest a program that scans resume documents for keywords and phrases that apply to the job post and forwards those with the highest/closest match in terms of keywords for skills and certifications to the hiring manager or HR.
Trying to game the ATS is truly an art.
Copy+pasting the entire job description and shrinking it down to the smallest font size possible could work, but once HR staff look at the resume and if it doesn’t jive with what they’re looking for, in the trash your resume goes. Often, most resumes go into the digital waste pile and are never seen by human eyes. People with unconventional resumes and backgrounds who might be a different but good fit can often be looked over because of ATS.
Too many applicants, too wide a pool
LinkedIn provides the best understanding for how much competition an initial job applicant is dealing with.
More often as not, I’ve seen jobs posted that within a matter of hours have 200+ applicants vying for that position. It’s a race against time to determine if you’re interested in the job, tailor a resume to the position, upload the new document, fill out any demographic information or screening questions they have, hit submit, and hope that you were faster than the other 300+ people also interested in that job.
The odds become substantially worse if the job is
remote/telework
with a large, well-known, or Fortune 500-like company
has moderate/good pay and good benefits
basically any job
And not to mention, any emotional hangups you may have that hinge on desperation or despair related to anxiety.
For the melancholic, angry-at-the-world/state-of-my-life-sucks-self-hating types, they can, but not always, will perceive the previous points as impossible barriers that they can’t overcome. What’s the point in trying? I’m just going to fail anyway.
I’m not going to pull the whole, If I could push through it, so can you, so suck it up buttercup.
It doesn’t validate your frustrations at things not working out. And it can take a while for things to work out. Remember that cute lil’ statistic about the 20-30% response rate?
You’re still getting a 70% rejection, and that’s the expected rejection rate, because it’s tough out there for everyone. You aren’t alone, and in that fact, you can take some comfort.
Push through it. Set aside the all-or-nothing, black-and-white arguments of it will never work out. It will. With patience, and time. Doesn't mean it isn’t going to suck while you’re waiting for a response, searching and firing off resumes like little missiles in Battleship, waiting for a hit. But it is the continued persistent effort that gives gain and reward, either in getting the job, creating a connection, learning about yourself, your needs, or honing your own process that makes you better at finding what you want and need in the long-run.
Grit and perseverance motherduckers. Sounds cliche, but it’s totally true.
Grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors
While it may not seem important on your short list of things to do when applying to a job, presentation of your resume is absolutely key. When a person is looking at a resume, they expect to see it error free. Your resume is a paper presentation of yourself. One or two errors can be forgiven, but if it numbers more than three—no, I’m not kidding, I do know people who hire that will toss out a resume if they find more than three errors—it appears sloppy and can hurt the perception of your competence and ability to perform.
If you are hiring someone, and they walk in inappropriately dressed for the interview, disheveled, sloppy, and ungroomed, what conclusions do you draw? In today’s day with much more casual dress codes, this metaphor may seem outdated. But when it comes to being one of the resumes that gets chosen over everyone else, presentation is key, and you want to stand out in a good way, not one that gets you dismissed before you even have a chance to shine.
A note on making a transition
If you’re trying to determine if you should stay or go from your current workplace, you’ve come to (hopefully) the right place to point you in the right direction:
here is the direction —>
That was your cue. *ahem, cough.
Whether it’s a healthy workplace or not, please review these two previous posts for guidance and an inventory you can do to assess and plan accordingly:
Cool?
Cool.
So we’ve covered the negative bits about how hard it is to find a job realistically—that 70% rejection rate ain’t great, and more often as not, the career advice you may have received about receiving a polite “Sorry, we have chosen to move forward with another candidate” only happens occasionally, usually through email, and there is often no follow-up. Once, I interviewed for a communications director position with a large church in the area; they forgot to tell me they had gone with another candidate, and I had to find out in casual conversation with one of their other employees someone else had been hired.
More likely on the rejection front, you will hear nothing back from the company, increasing any anxiety you may have about the job. If you do hear back, the rejection email may come several months after you sent the application, without even an invitation to interview, leading to a lot of frustration, cynicism, or even bitterness about finding a new job, depending on how desperate of a situation you find yourself in. Everything is amplified when you’re under stress, and even the most practiced people in resilience with great grit have breaking points.
Once you have interviewed, it is polite and acceptable to send a follow-up once a week or every other week requesting an update on the status of your application. In your initial first follow-up, always say thank you for the interview, as it shows conscientiousness and courteousness. Both of you had to take time out of your day to do the interview, rather than other work; be gracious.
In your tone, be respectful, polite, but not passive, passive aggressive, or overly aggressive. Something to the effect of:
Hi So-and-so,
I just wanted to reach out and say thank you for the opportunity to interview with ABC Company yesterday/earlier today. I enjoyed meeting your team and learning more about the work/position.
I look forward to hearing back from you.
Best,
Xxxxxx
However, if you’re considering a career move, I suggest consider developing a strategy first.
You could be the type of person who creates a vision board:
If you’re like me, that’s not my style. I write quotes, read my favorite passages, watch inspiring clips of people overcoming tough things, not make collages. But some people need the visual inspiration and creative outlet.
I’m a lists person when I brainstorm. Art projects like that get me caught up in the woods and I lose focus.
As I frequently harp about when it comes to therapy, there’s a lot of folks who don’t know what they want to work on when they walk through the door. There’s also a goodly amount that do, to be fair.
To do any of this requires you have some level of focus and the ability to organize yourself in a system that is consistent (for you) and that works to help you achieve your goals in a fashion of your own design.
Basically: have your own system of organization, have a rough idea of what you want/need, and aim for it with measurable goals that you can attain and are not unrealistic, with single-minded focus.
I will have sent out 100 resumes by the end of the week.
No. That isn’t likely to happen.
Firstly, there may not be 80 job postings related to your field or immediate geographic/regional area that you can apply your skillset to. There’s a limit to what is realistic.
For yourself, think about what your schedule during the day looks like, and consider this:
When do you have blocks of free time?
How much free time do you have to dedicate to other chores/life tasks?
How much of the time after chores/tasks are done is left for:
searching for the job
determining rightness of fit based on skills and experience
tailoring each resume to the jobs you want to apply for
brainstorming places to look for a job
sending out messages to friends and connections on LinkedIn, social media, or through private chat/word-of-mouth if your connection’s workplaces are hiring
If you send off 5-10 resumes a week, that is quite an accomplishment, even five.
Moving forward, think about yourself and how you work best.
Let’s consider some of these options:
What kind of work environment do you find you are most productive in?
Busy, bustling, open space concepts?
Quiet, everyone has their own office, doors shut?
Moderate or quiet, with an open-door policy?
Cubicle, open-floor with desk clumps but no assigned personal desk, private office?
In-office, hybrid, or remote work only?
A window with natural light, or is it acceptable to not have a window or ability to see outside?5
If you are seeking a remote work position, what is the home environment like?
Do you need:
Quiet to focus
Your own space
How do you handle home distractions such as pets, outside noise, roommates, neighbors, children, spouse?
What kind of level of discipline do you need to get your work done in order to focus?
What kind of schedule/routine do you need to create to balance your work responsibilities and your life responsibilities?
What kind of additional office-related work items (office-supplies, ergonomic chair, etc.) do you need to accomplish your work?
If/when you find a remote position, find out what their policies are on compensation or supplying employees with equipment for the completion of work/projects
Are you introverted, extroverted, ambiverted? What is your preferred level of interaction with coworkers?
What level of job are you looking for?
Entry
Intermediate
Skilled to advanced?
What additional qualifications/education/certifications will you need to apply for jobs in this field?
If you need additional certification, what will that cost? Is the investment in that certification worth the return on investment?
How much time and effort will you need to invest in achieving the certification?
Variables to research to help in your decision, or considerations for switching careers:
What is the projected job growth for your chosen field of work?
What are the pros/cons, or benefits/challenges to the work?
What are the leading causes of burnout for that type of work/position?
How long do people last in that type of work?
What are preventative measures you may need to take to create a self-care plan so that you are less likely to burn out?
This point requires you being able to know and express you needs, as well as paying attention to them, instead of pushing yourself to the limit.
If you have difficulty expressing knowing what your needs are, take some time to jot out some thoughts about what is helpful to restore your reserves
What is the average pay range for that job, and expected salary growth with increases in education and experience?
Utilize sites to research pay ranges for your profession/field in your area to understand market value and your worth:
Is there a specific company you are interested in working for?
Research the company through a general search of their website, in the news, read Google reviews for the customer’s perspective, or find reviews of the company on Indeed and Glassdoor if employees have left feedback about their experiences.
If you know someone or several people who work at the company, ask if you can catch up with them over coffee or lunch and ask if they would be willing to share their experience with you working for that company
Reach out to professionals in a specific field and ask if you can interview them about their experience working in that field, pros and cons, challenges, changes, and projections for how the field is doing and where the field is going, and any other questions you have about working in that type of job or industry6
Reach out to a company and inquire about job shadowing (a.k.a. following someone around and seeing how work/duties are done/performed). It is somewhat old-fashioned, but is a way to get a good sense of what a job is like
If you don’t quite know what you want to do
When people came to me for career counseling, unless they had already taken an MBTI7, I would direct them to the ONET Interest Profiler, run by the Department of Labor. It’s a nifty career assessment that anyone can take, though limited to two languages (translated into both Spanish and English) and gives an indication of interests toward what you want to do. The categories are broken into six categories:
Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional.
These categories are not true measures of personality, but they can be good indicators for activities or fields you may have an interest in that you haven’t considered before. Take the test, receive a code, and explore the types of jobs that overlap. The website is a vast resource of different occupations, and functions as a giant Occupational Handbook, similar to the kind you might have seen in high school or had to use for a careers project. I suggest exploring the site just to be familiar with its offerings.
Sometimes, having an assessment such as this can be helpful in guiding a person toward work they’ve thought about doing, or entering into new fields they haven’t considered before. What holds people back from switching from what they’ve always known is (in no particular order):
time
finances for additional training, schooling
fear of failure or success — paradoxical, I know
access to resources
incentive
weight against other responsibilities or competing interests in your life
Recently, I was listening to Jordan Peterson discuss with Stephen Shaw about concerns related to long-term goal planning in the lifespan. Often when I speak with people, they’re quite concerned about the here and now and the day-to-day.
The thing is, many people, not just myself, have second or third careers — it’s fairly common, especially if you consider a few things.
The average lifespan of a man in the U.S. is 73.5 years, and a woman is 79.3 years, give or take8, according to the CDC. Women have a tendency to life about 6-8 years longer than men, also give or take, depending on genetics and lifestyle factors.
If you have children, even if they’re currently tiny people, they will eventually grow up and usually, they move out. If you have children in your 20s, within reasonable expectation, your children will be out of the house by the time you hit your mid to late-40s.
For those who have kids in their 30s, reasonable expectations would assume children leaving the home while you are in your 50s, approximately.
For men and women, you have approximately 30-40+ additional years of life, and despite current CDC rankings, since human beings are adaptable and many factors can change over time, there is a possibility of living into your 80s or 90s. Remember, prognostications are simply that: predictions. They are not prophecies. You have more agency and control over changing features in your life than you realize.
Once children leave the house, and circumstances change, what do you do with your time? Perhaps, you already find yourself in that situation. Education can be achieved at any age, and to Peterson’s point, life doesn’t stop happening.
Risks, tragedies, difficulties, and famine years still occur. People die, jobs cease to exist, companies fold, economies grow or shrink, natural disasters still happen. Human beings are incredible adaptable creatures; it doesn’t mean that things stop being difficult, but we learn (hopefully) to navigate them with more grace and understanding of how to approach a situation after we’ve gone through it.
Paradoxically, we don’t have as much time as we think, but we have more time than we realize we do to actualize and engage in more meaningful tasks that help our lives feel more complete, accomplished, and rewarding than we realize.
If you want to switch careers, start looking into what that entails. Good degrees can be found at community colleges, through the military, and the trades are also a satisfying and fulfilling line of work. College and university are not for everyone, and that is perfectly acceptable. And if you have a problem with that, —> 🚪
If you know what you want to do, but don’t know where to start
Finding the job itself is only part of the work. A lot of people I’ve met may be good at problem solving in one area of their lives, but they struggle at applying the same skills in another direction. That’s because they become stuck focusing on the tree, rather than pausing to step back and think about the forest, how broad it is, and if they should go through it, around it, or under it, a.k.a., strategically thinking outside the proverbial box.
Once you’ve learned how to re-adapt the skills — hey look, evolutionary advantage at work! — the process becomes a bit copy-paste.
I’ve had a handful of clients who take the suggestion and run full-blast with it; some just stare at you dumbfounded, and others yet expect someone to solve their problem for them.
However it can be helpful to have suggestions if we get stuck. Honestly, most people make their own way, through their own ingenuity, resilience, and tenacity, with just a little bit of encouragement and gentle push in a general direction. And if that direction doesn’t work, change course, adjust your bearings, and try again.
Here is a list of ideas and places that can help lead to finding a job:
networking through your friends and current coworkers, on social media and in real life
network through current work opportunities, or old colleagues you’re on good terms with/kept in contact with
reaching out to old college professors or program mentors to keep you in mind if new opportunities arise
review local nonprofits, charities, or organizations you volunteer with/donate to (RedCross, ASPCA, Humane Society, etc.) and connect with people you already know for open positions at those and surrounding locations
cold calling or walking into a storefront business
private Facebook groups that post jobs
college job fairs
church job fairs
temp agencies
internet sites
My best recommendation is to look at your network of friends and acquaintances, and work your network.
This week I don’t have any recommendations, since packing, planning, and moving have occupied my time. I’m working on another post for next week, to deliver on my two items a month in your inbox.
So I wish you God speed and good luck in your job search.
Pax vobiscum 🕊
World Health Organization, COVID-19 pandemic triggers 25% increase in prevalence of anxiety and depression worldwide, 3/2/2022
I once had a job where I worked deep inside a building and my desk had no access to sunlight. I’m not a person who gets seasonal depression, but not being able to see the day shift and be exposed to natural light deeply upset my circadian rhythms and ability to feel grounded. Do not dismiss this inclination if this is a concern of yours.
When I was determining if I wanted to apply to graduate school for counseling, I randomly called a sampling of therapists around my geographic area, left a polite message explaining why I was calling, and requested if I could have a half an hour of their time to speak to them about the field and what their experiences had been. Some of it was helpful, some of it wasn’t, but ultimately it gave me good directional information about the type of degree I wanted to pursue and what the work would typically be like.
The MBTI is not a reliable indicator of personality. We studied this. It’s fun, but not reality. It’s only marginally better than the Zodiac, and that’s about as reliable as some random on Reddit telling you your fortune based on how cool your user name is. I’m sure a sub or bot like that exits somewhere on Reddit.
CDC, Life Expectancy
This is wonderful thanks Rachael