Dealing with Job-Search Depression Post Graduation

With an open schedule, it can be hard to sit yourself down when you don’t have any clear deadlines. So, set aside a specific time to be productive, whether it’s applying to new jobs, learning new skills, relearning current skills, or producing endorphins from a good work out. Find out if there are job skills training programs in your state. Resources available for people who are unemployed can help you build new skills to make you more competitive on the job market.

That is why it is essential to continue looking for a job before it affects your mental health. We recommend that you find a way to occupy yourself with something until you receive your dream offer. Read this article to learn how to avoid depression while looking for a job and how to keep yourself motivated. We will explain job search depression, its symptoms, and how to fight it.

What is job search depression?

Taking care of your emotional health is one of the best things you can do while you’re looking for work. Job search depression often affects self-esteem, and it’s hard to show your talent and value to employers when you don’t feel much https://remotemode.net/blog/job-search-depression-exists-and-it-has-to-be-addressed/ confidence. But as you make changes to prioritize your well-being, your self-image is likely to improve, which will boost your ability to make a great impression. Keep in mind, interview questions can still be hard to plan for.

• Clients who are emotionally vulnerable at this time need help.
• Remember that your personality is made up of a variety of different experiences, ideas, interests, perspectives and not just defined solely by your resume.
• We have listed job seekers’ most common mistakes and tips on searching for a job and passing an interview.
• Always watching your email for positive replies or waiting for a phone call to schedule an interview can challenge your anxiety levels.
• You can also schedule sending several job applications for each weak.

Having at least two or three activities planned for each day will reduce the opportunity for binging on videos or gaming. If you’ve used therapy or medication in the past, now is the time to revisit those tools. If cost or scheduling are barriers, even a free hotline conversation could help.

The Connection Between Unemployment and Mental Health

The model of grief by Kubler-Ross (1969) can help us understand why people experience unemployment loss, as this experience often resembles grief. This working model can explain the psychological and emotional consequences of job loss. This theory views the grief stages as denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

The job search process is like a job in itself, and putting in all that work without a chance of getting hired can create low self-esteem in the individual. There are a lot of factors that can contribute to the development of job search depression. In addition to the overall frustration of not landing a job, financial stress, feelings of inadequacy, anger, anxiety, and uncertainty are also often. After weeks of dealing with these feelings, the telltale sign of depression will likely sneak in–hopelessness. Depression can come in many forms and can occur in various events.

Job Seeking When Struggling with Depression and Anxiety

It will help them to find the bright side in a difficult part of their life. There are 17 Grief and Bereavement Exercises that may be purchased to use in your client sessions. These are science-based techniques that can support your clients through the job loss bereavement process to make sense of what has happened to them and help them move on to new beginnings. Maybe you can help them see how every cloud has a silver lining and how this phase in their life may be an opportunity to rethink their life and career.

• Sometimes, all the meditation apps, consistent routines, and supportive friends in the world aren’t enough to break the cycle of depression and anxiety.
• Get busy on social media and begin marketing yourself to a new audience.
• School fees, mortgages, and car loans still need to be paid regardless of the state of your employment.
• You should use your network to make your search easier and find the most suitable position.
• In a study published by the CDC, around 20% of the unemployed young adults sampled suffered from some form of depression.
• It can almost feel like someone has stripped them of their whole identity overnight.

Next, she says, you should adopt a positive mindset and surround yourself with positive people — especially those who could become part of your professional network. It’s normal to feel additional stress and anxiety during the job search process—but it’s also a difficult cycle to break. So when you’re feeling down about your job search, how can you cope? The good news is there are proven ways to better manage your mood during your job search, so you can rock your interviews and land a new role you love. Your support system can help lift you up when you’re feeling defeated. Friends and family can be great resources to talk to as you work through your depression and your job search, and they can also serve as the much needed reminder that you aren’t alone in any of it.

Networking 101

Specifically find an invaluable skill within the industry you want to work. This could range from public speaking to a more technical certification. Since I am still in the job market myself, here are ways I am trying to manage my mental health as a job seeker that I think will be helpful. “It’s a feedback mechanism where the longer you go, the harder it is on your emotional health,” he said.

There are all kinds of reasons a person may experience situational depression—including an ongoing, unsuccessful job search. Recruiters are human too and occasionally fall prey to affinity biases, expectation anchors, and other unconscious failings. Faults in the recruitment process can occasionally lead to good applications being rejected by mistake.

This will help them match their strengths to the right job. Montgomery, Cook, Bartley, and Wadsworth (1999) found that people who have been recently unemployed had a greater risk of depression and anxiety than those who had not. Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Stress & Burnout Prevention Exercises (PDF) for free.

• Whatever you do, make sure it’s something you’ll look forward to regularly —having a morale boost will do wonders.
• The key is to not let your frustration overshadow your career goals and to turn every challenge into an opportunity.
• Staying organized will prevent you from feeling overwhelmed with the job search process.
• Montgomery, Cook, Bartley, and Wadsworth (1999) found that people who have been recently unemployed had a greater risk of depression and anxiety than those who had not.
• People also tend to worry and overthink when they don’t hear back from a company after sending their CVs.
• You can use these techniques even if you don’t have a depression diagnosis.

The following are five techniques to help them manage this difficult time. The following are examples of active problem-solving with a constructive aim, and you should encourage your clients to do these. One tentative hypothesis is that men may perceive they have more responsibility for the financial running of the household, although this notion has changed considerably in today’s modern society. When you feel it creeping up on you, make yourself think of something nice, before negativity takes hold and pulls you down that dark path. So plan a night out with a friend to vent and reduce some of your stress.

Dealing with Job-Search Depression Post Graduation

If you’re ready to start your transition into industry, you can apply to book a free Transition Call with our founder Isaiah Hankel, PhD or one of our Transition Specialists. If you want to stay motivated, you need to allow yourself time to recover. This will keep you focused on specific tasks, which will prevent you from feeling overwhelmed and defeated. Organizing your job search is imperative to keeping track of your progress. Join a trusted community or association so you don’t feel like you’re the only one going through this.