Thanks for your kind comments on my previous post, everyone. Your empathy means so much – job hunting, in addition to being stressful, can be lonely. So let’s keep talking about it. Here we go with the second post: the sheer overwhelm of trying to find the right job(s) to apply for.
You’d think it would get easier, honestly.
I’ve been through the job hunt many times before, so when I started keeping an eye on job boards last fall, and then sending out applications in earnest this winter, you’d think it would be a simple matter to narrow it down to the strongest possibilities.
But. In this age of the Internet, there are a million places to search for jobs – which is a blessing, but it can also be a curse. Especially if, like me, you’re easily overwhelmed by too many options. The job boards all seem to be eerily similar-but-different, like carbon copies of each other tweaked just enough to be confusing. LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, ZipRecruiter – the names and search boxes start to blur in front of my eyes after a while.
And how to sift through the myriad of postings to find the jobs I actually want? I work in communications, a field so broad and ubiquitous as to sometimes seem entirely meaningless. I’ve loved my 15 years in higher ed, but am also exploring other industries right now – which can feel exciting, but also even more overwhelming. My most recent job title was “communications manager,” but typing that into a search bar brings up dozens of postings, most of which only slightly resemble the work I want to do. Typing in “writer” or “editor” casts the net even wider. It can feel daunting, if not downright impossible, to use those search engines to find good possibilities for how to earn a living and spend my days.
My strategies for this are pretty simple: set up a few job alerts on more targeted sites, like HigherEdJobs or HireCulture; sift through the longer lists to see what’s out there; send out applications to the jobs that seem the most interesting and/or a good fit for my skills. And the big one: close the computer and walk away when it all gets to be too much.
Job hunting is usually a marathon, I know, not a sprint. It feels like I’m on about mile 8 of a cold, rainy Boston Marathon, to be honest. (Full disclosure: while I am a runner, I’ve never run a marathon, much less conquered Boston.) But I’ve got to keep going, till I find the next right job – or at least something to tide me over for a while.
Can you sympathize with the job-hunt overwhelm? And do you have tips for dialing it down a notch? I’d love to hear.
cakes, tea and dreams 
I feel for you. My husband and I are now retired, but we’ve both been through losing jobs and finding new ones. It’s SO personal. And brutal. Here’s the thing though once you’re on to your next gig you’ll soon leave this time in your rear view mirror. That said the only way to get a job, but protect yourself at the same time is to pursue it like a job. Devote a certain number of hours a day and work hard and then close up shop and enjoy your life. This too will pass. Just keep plugging away. Don’t allow the search to completely dominate your life.
Thanks, Jane. That’s wise advice.
In Texas we have non-profit specific job sites run by real people. Lots of NPO/NGO/public service type jobs. If you’re looking to move on from higher ed and are looking for the NPO world, a similar site might be useful.
That’s a good tip! Thanks, Joey.
Hi Katie – oof! I hear every word and emotion in this post. I was job hunting last spring/summer and finally found a new thing in late Aug/Sept that took until Nov 1 to actually begin. I was in a job at the time, so that’s a difference, but everything else feels achingly similar. The “communications” part especially. Since I was leaving a grant-writing position, I wasn’t even sure anymore that the communications/writing realm is where I wanted to be in the day job. That’s when I started opening up my search and found the next thing.
The site I used was FlexJobs, which contrary to its ads is not only remote work. While I had been sticking with that communications/writerly niche, I eventually unchecked all the job types boxes and just watched the “newly posted jobs” feed. I thought at the very least it might open my eyes to what else was out there. Sure enough, that’s where I found my current thing. I got a job that tends to get 600+ respondents right away. I think I stuck out partly because I discovered an error in the link to apply and had to email someone. It was a bit luck on top of the persistence. We’ll talk privately about how it’s going and whether it’s the dream, but it definitely checked a lot of boxes for things I wanted to change in my work life.
Hopefully, that’s somewhat helpful advice, but the next thing is not: Everyone told me, it will happen eventually or in the right time or when it’s supposed to (depending on their worldview!), and that is hard to take and hard to believe but maybe kinda true. At the very least, I do believe it will happen. I’ll be hanging right there with you with these posts! Wishing you all the best and SOON.
So much goodness here, friend. Thank you for sharing. xo