Not your physical reflection. The less tangible harder-to-control reflection. The emotional one.
It is a very difficult job market and you must be prepared for:
1.) Organizations that have been bootstrapping their workload and are starting to get burnt out. And although they WANT to hire, they are often times waiting on company performance and looser budgets to allow them to hire.
2.) The plethora of feedback you will get from prospective employers (everyone has taken the idea of user generated content and transparency to heart and is sharing WAY more than they used to with candidates!) Be ready to learn from it.
3.) The fact that if you do not know someone in the hiring company or organization – you’ll have to work for it! It is not impossible, but organizations are definitely taking internal referrals very seriously these days. It is an easy way for them to sift through the sea of resumes they get from unknown candidates and move quickly once they have been given a headcount.
In addition, you will likely be in simultaneous talks tracking at different paces with several organizations at once. You need to stay energized about each interaction. It takes some time to determine if the organization is a cultural fit for you, if the organization is interested in you and respects your experience, if the role is active/funded, and if the company is stable and on an upward trajectory. You need to interview them just as they are interviewing you.
Throughout the process it can be hard to remain positive and jazzed about each individual opportunity. Especially if you discover some of them are not what they appeared to be on the surface. If you reach this point, and you may not even mean to do it, some of that dampened spirit could show through to your prospective employers. Perhaps your reflection is portraying your troubled demeanor, your faltering confidence, and your sapped energy level – even if there is a smile on your face!
I have heard many people say, “If you do not like your job, then you need better hobbies.” I think this same insight applies to job hunting. If the job hunting process is getting you down then you need to focus your energy on identifying those one or two things that make you happy and go enjoy them. Immerse yourself in it and let it rejuvenate you. The next time you sit down for an interview maybe your reflection will be portray the confident, dedicated, and happy employee you are.
