Are You Pushing a Black Cloud?

Employers don’t hire depressed people. This comes as no surprise to those of us who are sitting on the sidelines watching someone we care about go through the exercise of finding employment, but for many who are “in the game” this simple fact seems to elude them.

No question about it - loosing your job can be pretty demoralizing. So can sending out dozens of resumes and never getting a reply. And if somehow you are able to land an interview, not getting the offer continues the downward spiral.

Yesterday I met with a former client who has been unemployed since October. He wanted me to rewrite his résumé to make it “more generic” because he was convinced that highlighting the education, skills and experience that positioned him for his desired career was not working. Every suggestion I made was met with an objection:

• Follow-up with employers to ensure your résumé was received and ask when they would be scheduling interviews – “I don’t have the company phone number.”

• Make a list of companies you want to target and learn all you can about them – “I already applied to everyone in the area; there is no one left to add to my list.”

• Share your résumé and job search plan with your friends and references and ask for their insight and advice – “I don’t have any friends and I no longer have a phone number for any of my references.”

• Call people you know in the industry and schedule an informational interview to get their feedback on what employers are looking for and suggestions for improving your skills and employability – “No one is going to take the time to talk to me.”

This job seeker had already decided that all hope was gone; in fact, he shared with me that he hates getting up in the morning and prefers to avoid all human contact. It never occurred to him that he was using all his energy to keep pushing a black cloud and wondering why the Universe was not rewarding him with a job instead of gloom and doom.

Feelings of anxiety, fear, depression and even anger are all part of the process of letting go so you can move on to acceptance. If you find yourself stuck in any of these phases, or someone you trust points this out to you, I encourage you to seek professional help. It does not mean you are weak or crazy and you will be on medication or in therapy the rest of your life. Until you are able to set the black cloud aside and believe that the sun will shine on you again, you can modify your résumé all you want and spend hours searching job boards but success will continue to elude you.

Comments

[Dee Knight]

The phrase, "success will continue to elude you." isn't going to put confidence in the heart of anyone, let alone someone carrying around a black cloud. I have shared the same sentiments, not the isolation from the world, but many job postings don't even tell you who the company is and either use a generic jobs@whatevercompany.com e-mail adress or a hidden e-mail address. If you don't know the company how do you contact them again? I've re-emailed to try and see if my resume was received but still get no response. What if you haven't done everything you could have as far as networking and you no longer have contacts. What if you have e-mailed or tried to call the people who used to be your contacts and you really don't get a response back?

I've gone so far to start applying for retail jobs just to have some sort of income and get no response. I'll call the locations or go to the store that is supposed to be hiring and they tell me to apply online and when I tell them I alreday have they say I'll have to wait to get a reply. When I try to give my name so that it will ring a bell with whoever is looking at the online applications, I'm told they won't take my name and that I'll just have to wait. What is a person supposed to do?

[Kellie]

Norine,

Thanks very much for this post. It was very timely for me on a personal level as today I received yet another rejection phone call in 6 months. I have my bad days and my good days but I know I will get a job - eventually. I have great skills and talents.

Being "up" is exhausting and you can get burned out but you must surround yourself with a great circle of friends and family, and, yes, if needed, some professional help. There's nothing wrong with it - it shows you're human and have real feelings.

The Career Hub staff has great ideas and I look forward to reading all the posts for help, tips and ideas. Thanks again!

My favorite quote ever:
"Hope is the last thing a person does before they are defeated." ~ Henry Rollins

Defeat is not an option.

[Norine Dagliano]

Kelli,

I agree with you that being "up" can be pretty exhausting. I have had my energy zapped more than once when I found myself unemployed and trying to land another gig. Surrounding yourself with positive people, reading Career Hub posts and inspirational quotes - all of these are great survival tips. I wish you a speedy transition.

[Will at Virtualjobcoach]

Here's another take on it.

You are depressed because you feel that you aren't making forward progress on the job-search.

You feel that you aren't making forward progress because you don't have a 'process' that you can trust. You either have found a job (and are successful) or are still looking (and therefore by default unsuccessful).

You read the internet and try new resumes, ways of following up, and tweets.

But they don't really make sense and aren't producing results.

The problem is that you really don't know how to do the job-search and that is making you depressed because everything you do is not yielding results.

"BUT WAIT WILL" you say - "I know how to job-search".

But do you really?

If you told me you knew how to fish, but everything you were doing wasn't helping you catch fish, then it would be difficult for me to think that "you really know how to fish".

So - how are you sure you know how to job-search?

Regards,
Will at virtualjobcoach.com