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The Emotional Toll of a Long Term Search: Managing the Silence and Grief
How do you manage the emotional toll of a long-term job search? How would you manage the silence from employers and the potential grief you can experience?
Long-term job searches can cause some havoc with your head. With a process that can seem opaque, at best, we rely on answers from potential employers to keep us up to date and included in decisions being made.
At least, that is what we hope for.
Last week, I addressed some of the emotional disruptions that long-term job searches can create. This week, I offer suggestions on how to deal with employers who ghost and the feelings of grief we need to address with unsuccessful searches.
Dealing with the Silence
Over the course of the past year, I submitted applications for over two dozen positions. I was a finalist for four of the positions but received exactly three ‘sorry but we chose another candidate’ responses after the interviews. For nearly 20 applications, I received no feedback on the status of my application or my interviews — even for a job where I was an on-campus candidate. I assumed that once classes began that semester I was probably not getting the job!
