Take Control
Ask not what you can do for a potential employer, but what a potential employer can do for you. Feeling in control is vital to stress reduction, so inject this mindset into your job search and interviews to inoculate you against some of the stress of this process. Ask prospective employers about their mission, expectations, work environment and other traits important to you, a technique that also communicates confidence, self-respect and skill under pressure.
Shout Out Successes
List your many strengths from building efficient project teams to baking "top chef" chocolate cupcakes. Rejection can eat away at your self-confidence, so it's important to regularly review your menu of impressive skills, reinforcing self-esteem.
Call for Backup
Convene and consult people who praise, encourage, and if necessary, thoughtfully offer you wise suggestions for change. Think of them as essential members of your job search "committee," selected by you to keep you motivated and catch you if you fall behind.
Edit the Noise
Go on a media diet by cutting back on the constant feed of rising unemployment numbers,
mortgage default rates and shuttered shops. Beyond appropriately figuring current events into your job search strategy, this information does little more than ramp up our stress and wear down our spirits.
Take a Break
Balance the stress of your job search by working out, volunteering, basket weaving or taking part in other enjoyable activities that temporarily take you away from the job of job hunting. And try to kiss goodbye any guilt from doing so. These sojourns strengthen your psyche and your body--and therefore your ability to find work.
Jordan was interviewed in May by William Arruda of Reach Personal Branding about stress management. For an audio download of that interview, go to May 2009 Reach Personal Branding Interview (scroll down the page to May 2009 and look for the audio link).
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