Job-hunting fatigue.

I've had five jobs in the past four years; the last one lasted two years, but I got laid off recently.

I'm really sick of looking for jobs.  It's not even enjoyable to me to think about the possibilities or imagine my dream job; I can hardly think of one.  I hate the thought of looking.

I'm probably not the only one who's run into this before, so...what does one do to get over this malaise?

Kyralessa
Tuesday, May 25, 2004

I hear ya - job hunting is a crippling thing, been there done that.  It's tough to avoid depression.

Don't let yourself sink into a hole.  Do something constructive with your time.  Volunteer.  Exercise.  Write the first killer app for Longhorn.  Whatever.  Just stay busy.

anon
Tuesday, May 25, 2004

Maybe a two week break not thinking at all about work or finding a job?

Scot
Tuesday, May 25, 2004

Go visit your parents. Start preparing yourself mentally to work in an completely unrelated industry.
This are very very very tough.

RP
Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Finding a job is the best cure.

Start at 9, finish at 5:30 each day. Think of it as working from home doing a deeply unpleasant project which will, nevertheless, be over soon.

I find job-hunting as galling and noxious as you do, but by forcing myself through it I've always been able to find something within a month.

Courage, you can do it.

Fernanda Stickpot
Wednesday, May 26, 2004

I found the "What color is your parachute" book to be the best cure for the associated depression, not sure if that's the same thing as your fatigue though.  It's probably available at a local library.

Colin Newell
Wednesday, May 26, 2004

I was unemployed for 15 months before I found a job last year. My current job varies from being good to abmissmal. Bascially at the moment I'm getting handed all the partially completed projects the company failed to get to completion over the years due to cluelessness.

I got very depressed with the job hunting experience.

As I signed on for income support, I had to apply for low or no skill jobs. They required huge application forms to be completed. It just wasted hours of my time. I never even got an interview for those jobs as I was obviously over qualified.

I got a few interviews for software development jobs. If it was at a university, I had to wait 4 months for the interview. Then at the interview the interviewers pointed out that I hadn't worked for the last 6 months!!! I had one interview at a commerial company that asked me to do 1 day's unpaid work as an pre-interview question. I had one interview. At the interview the software developer in the company said the work I did formed the basis for their next project! Then a month later the interviewer wanted me to do another unpaid day's work at their office. I said I wasn't happy with that idea and got a nasty email from the interviewer the next day.

Interviews either ended up with me waiting weeks being told nothing or resulted in smarmy people telling me that although I had good knowledge of such and such a buzzword they wanted great knowledge. I was left dumbfunded as the people that said that didn't ask me any real technical questions about the buzzword.

Savage
Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Savage ... rings true, sad but true. I was out of full-time work from 10/2001 to 10/2002.  I took a vacation where I worked on doing my resume. I wrote an online app to store all the projects I'd worked on. I also then started to learn another popular language and wrote some apps in it. When I got back from vacation (from another country) I applied at a headhunter and I scored better on this new language than the one I'd been using productively for the last 4  years. Go figure. They also said they'd send me out as a sysadmin owing to my score on that test ... and that scared me. I was considered an expert in the 2 programming languages I tested on (and one of them I'd never been paid to work with).  Anyhow ... I always searched for jobs in my field and posted my resume. A guy at a company told all applicants that he thought we should post some proof of knowledge and he suggested brainbench and I did that but I don't think it's worth much but was interesting to see how you stacked against other people. I spent about US$50.00 on google and overture to advertise "web developer for hire"  and I continued to send in resumes. One place that was thinking about hiring me decided to contract instead and I got a month and a half good work before they sold out to a competitor. I got work from people I never saw and some from other countries. I posted answer to usenet newsgroups and advertised in that manner ... not spamming but answering a question and always putting a bit in there about how I was available for hire (in my sig usually). I got some work from that. Then the headhunter got me a bit of work here and there and finally they got me a gig where I was the guy who did all the work no one else wanted to do. This was good because it was in the new language I had been learning. And it was for a Super Duper CMS that everyone hated. Anyhow I'm still at this place as I write now. We are supposed to move to Java and I look forward to that to pick up another language.  I suggest you put yourself in "I work for myself mode but I'll take an interesting full time job".  There was a time when I was getting ready to go back to an industry I was in before which simply required me to do what I did yesterday everyday.  I hate interviews and I'd rather not work than work for dummies.    I must say that I think the best thing, if you can stomach it, is to get out there and meet people and even do cold calling.

me
Wednesday, May 26, 2004

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