Just Think of It as Fishing

At sometime or other most of us go through the job seeking process, whether because we want a change from a current situation that no longer gives us scope for career development, have just finished training and want to start along a new career path or are looking to get back into the work force after a period of absence for whatever reason. Now they say with the internet, job seeking is easier that ever before, or is it?

It so happens that people looking to start out on a new career path find themselves becoming full time job seekers and the process can become seriously frustrating. It’s like fishing; throwing out a baited hook to prospective employers, waiting for a bite or two and carefully trying to reel them in.

Having recently arrived in a new city, I unknowingly entered this role, and found myself focusing on remaining hopeful and optimistic and obligingly filling out additional forms and taking on various tasks set by prospective employers to play one applicant against another before making their final decision. The final two or three applicants on the other hand, know that either one of them can adapt to the new challenges sufficiently and do the job perfectly well.

Sure it’s easy to send your CV as an attachment and cut and paste a cover letter to many similar advertised vacancies, but this also means prospective employers are receiving more applications than ever before. For the applicant this means making it onto more short lists, taking more time off and forking out for transport costs to attend more interviews and ultimately receiving more “unfortunately you application was unsuccessful”, rejection letters.

It can be a demoralising experience, being refused and holding your head up again to convince someone else to just give you a chance. However, there is an ingredient in human nature called hope, a knowledge essentially based on nothing but a naïve belief that like the fisherman who sits quietly by the water watching and waiting by the lure, with persistence everything will eventually work out for the best.