PRESSURES TO EXPECT
There are several standard psychological phenomena to anticipate and prepare for in job hunting. Fortunately, simply recognizing them as being standard phenomena and not isolated traumas peculiar to your job search is half the battle in conquering them. The remainder of the battle is the use of a systematic and organized approach to job hunting as described in the prior chapters with a couple of psychological tricks to be implemented at the appropriate times. An organized system results in logical decisions, which in turn reduce psychological interest and pressure.
The first phenomenon to appreciate is that change of any nature is generally upsetting to the human species, and changing jobs is a major change. To leave a job is to leave a primary source of security in your life, and security is a basic need. Therefore, to minimize the trauma of job changing, try to find your new job while you are still employed. Job hunting while unemployed greatly increases the pressure by magnifying your urge to find another source of income regardless of the overall quality of the job and thereby reducing the length of time available for job hunting.
It is important to limit the number of other simultaneous major changes in your life. For example, when trying to make a job change, do not also plan to get married or get divorced or have a baby or undergo surgery or buy a new house. Do these things after you find your new job or before you even begin looking, but never simultaneously with your job search. The average person can handle only one major life change at one time. More than one and the quality of decision making in all areas declines drastically.
Once you have embarked on the Great Job Search, expect that your ego will be assaulted from all quarters. As explained earlier, you will hear the word no much more often than yes. While this is unfortunate, it is also normal. However, even after emphasized that no is not a dirty word, I realize that repeated rejection tends to be rather discouraging. That discouragement is one of the psycho logical problems you will need to handle before it turns into the "Failure Syndrome." This is the shock of discovering that nearly all of the companies are not offering you a job. You are tempted then to conclude that something must be wrong with you, that your job prospects are bleak, that success is an illusion, and that you are destined for total failure. Virtually everyone who goes job hunting finds it to be more difficult and frustrating than originally expected.
Even under the most favorable of circumstances, such as a very qualified candidate in an applicant-short job market, an individual will receive job offers from a minority of the total companies inter viewed. A company will normally interview 3-10 candidates for each job opening before making a job offer. Therefore, hearing no, 3-10 times more often than yes, is normal. Also remember that the hiring decision by the employer is usually subjective and illogical anyway. So don't take the rejection personally.
The key to success in any venture is the ability to endure the disappointments and rebound from defeat. Persistence often spells the difference between abject failure and euphoric triumph, for sometimes success is dependent only on the proper combination of circumstances. Harry S Tanmian was a failure as a merchant and was even advised by friends to file for bankruptcy. However, he refused to do so, repaid all of his debts, and finally received the ultimate job offer when elected to the presidency.
Since job hunting is not a very enjoyable exercise, but is full of pressure, insecurity and rebuffs, you are likely to experience "First Offer Panic." This is the normal reaction of the average job hunter upon receipt of his or her first official job offer. Since this job offer has been preceded by a string of rejections and disappointments, you will be tempted to accept the offer, even if it is a poor offer, simply to terminate the whole uncomfortable process of job hunting out of a fear that you may never get another job offer.
Fear not, because you are using an organized and methodical system to job hunt and this first job offer is not the result of luck but of hard work and if you can get one job offer you can get a dozen. In fact, each successive job offer comes more easily as you become more proficient at job hunting through practice and increasing self-confidence. So do not panic and accept that first job offer unless your subsequent objective evaluation determines it to be an offer you cannot refuse.
Another psychological phenomenon you may encounter is the "Fear of the Unknown" when it becomes time to make the actual job offer decision. This is an uneasy feeling of insecurity produced by an unfamiliar environment or the prospect of one. Most people are more comfortable with familiar, known quantities. Remember the principle of "Nobody Likes a Stranger?" That same basic psychological theorem that you used to your advantage earlier can now turn against you if you let it. Making any change takes courage, and the bigger the change, the more courage is required. Therefore, when job-offer-decision-making-time arrives, you may be inclined to put off making the decision and thus delay the associated psychological imrest or to decline the job offer, because it means a change to a new and unfamiliar environment, and stay in your comfortably familiar surroundings. Similarly, such a fear can discourage you from ever beginning a job search. It is always easier, both effort-wise and psychologically, to do nothing.
"Buyer’s Remorse" is a standard psychological reaction by anyone who has made a major decision in life like buying a house, proposing marriage, or accepting a job offer. The natural tendency is immediately to fear having made a mistake. Then the former status quo begins to appear more attractive. You are tempted to eliminate this remorse by reversing your decision. However, you can also eliminate the remorse by recognizing it for what it is, a normal psychological reaction, and by simply reexamining your evaluation process to observe that your decision was correct.
