Don’t Sink Your Career: Three Ways Lack of Confidence Impacts Your Executive Job Search was originally published on Ivy Exec.
It takes a long time to get a job. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that the mean length of unemployment was 27.6 weeks as of December 2021. The median was nearly 11 weeks. Forbes adds that most career experts say landing a new job takes between two and six months.
If you’re an executive, however, you might think that your job search should take less time. After all, your skills are so specialized that companies should want to snatch them up.
But unfortunately, this isn’t the case. It takes executives even longer to land new roles than the average worker.
“For executives, the search tends to last longer, meaning the total duration of the search is likely to be on the upper end of this scale. Expect it to take at least four months, or sometimes even close to a year,” said Forbes’ Tim Madden.
Still, knowing that most executives undergo long job searches doesn’t necessarily make it easier when you’re in the middle of your search. If you’re not hearing back from companies after submitting your applications or aren’t landing offers, you may get discouraged. In turn, you might lose your assurance that you’re a strong candidate.
Unfortunately, however, a lack of confidence impacts your executive job search. If you’re unable to sell yourself to the organization, you’re likely to perpetuate this unsuccessful job application cycle.
Here, we’ll talk about the most significant ways a lack of confidence impacts every aspect of job hunting and how to boost your self-respect in the face of rejection.
1⃣ You’ve started counting yourself out
How to fix it: Practice positive self-talk.
A lack of confidence can impact your success in applying for jobs and interviewing.
If you embark on every application with the belief that you won’t land the job, then you’re subliminally taking yourself out of the running from the beginning.
How can you get out of this habit?
We often hear about how we have to treat ourselves kindly and use positive self-talk. But sometimes, self-talk can feel like you’re promoting toxic positivity, pretending things are going well when they’re not.
Useful positive self-talk isn’t about lying to yourself. Instead, the idea is about motivating yourself with honesty.
For instance, if you were up against 200 candidates for a role you didn’t get, you don’t have to say something like, “I was the best candidate, and they just didn’t see it!” Instead, try something more honest, like, “There was a lot of competition for that position, and it was hard to stand out. But I have unique attributes, and the right company will come along that will value them.”
If this is still a struggle for you, identify indisputable examples of when you’ve been successful in your job search in the past. For instance, how many second or third-round interviews have you been invited to?
How many job offers have you gotten throughout your career? Taking stock of your success helps us move away from the negative bias we often get when we’re not successful.
Jessica Estrada of Well + Good spoke with clinical psychologist Kevin Gilliland about why this practice is effective.
“By collecting all the data, not just the bad pieces, you get a more balanced perspective and can see more clearly what actually is working, what isn’t broken, or what action steps you can take.
This alone, of course, Dr. Gilliland adds, won’t change the situation, but shifting your perspective on it can make a huge difference in the way you feel and the way you navigate it,” she writes.
2⃣ You feel like you don’t have anything special to offer
How to fix it: take stock of your accomplishments.
One of the struggles of job hunting is that you rarely know why you lost out on the role.
Even if you do get feedback, you may be left feeling like you haven’t done enough to make yourself a successful candidate.
If you didn’t land an offer, it doesn’t mean you were unworthy of the job. There are many reasons a job went to one candidate over another, some of which are arbitrary and most of which have little to do with your qualifications.
How can you make yourself feel better about yourself after getting passed over for a position?
“One of the biggest things we work on with our clients is documenting their past accomplishments. We all tend to do a terrible job at this on an ongoing basis, and it helps you remember what you’ve achieved in the past, the impact you’ve had, and what you’re great at, which builds your confidence around what you can do in the future,” suggested career coach Erin Ewart.
3⃣ You focus obsessively on the job you didn’t get and how you let yourself down
How to fix it:
Your self-confidence can really take a hit if you don’t land a job on which you’ve been fixating.
Sometimes, when we spot a “dream” job, we put all of our eggs into this basket, making the loss of the role particularly devastating.
That’s why it’s important to keep applying to many jobs at once, no matter how far along you are in a hiring round.
What’s more, it’s more productive to identify what you can do to improve your chances. For instance, if you notice several jobs asking you to understand a certain software program, consider taking a class to learn that program.
That’s more productive than beating yourself up about losing out on the job you wanted most.
How Confidence Impacts Your Executive Job Search
A long job search is certainly frustrating.
If you’ve been applying to jobs and not landing interviews or offers, it’s easy to lose confidence in yourself. But a lack of self-assurance bleeds into every aspect of your job search, making it even more difficult to win the job you want.
In order to counteract these negative beliefs, keep track of your successes, use positive self-talk, and avoid getting fixated on any single position.
Want more ideas about to boost your confidence while looking for a new job? Read our guide, “5 Ways to Regain Confidence During Your Job Search.”
