There have been two times I’ve gone through the job search process and come out feeling as though the eventual career that resulted, was not the best part.
On paper, going through the intense rejection, frustration and discrimination you experience when changing career should be all worth it when you find the right career.
Getting the job is only a small part, not the best part.
First Occasion
It first started when I wanted to leave finance and try my hand at a career in digital marketing. It was a nine-month process that I told everybody at the start would take one month. Boy was I wrong about that too 🙂
I got down to the final three choices. One of those choices was the result of contacting an old colleague from the finance world who had also made the transition and had remembered me when I contacted them. It felt as though we had worked together for many years — when I work it out, it was probably more like five months.
She became someone I looked up to for the way she approached new technology in the context of an old company and an even older industry. Every encounter with her was special because she made you, and your client, feel as though you mattered. Nothing could replace that feeling.
When I had coffee with her at about month seven of the search, she suggested I have another coffee with one of her colleagues.
It seemed like it would be a complete waste of time given I’d already had so many coffees with so many random strangers in the previous months.
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Still, I said yes. The person she introduced to me was cool and we got on well. There was an opportunity to join him in digital marketing, except nothing happened. The opportunity led nowhere.
A few weeks after the coffee, I was introduced to someone from HR. There was no role, just lots of questions about my career and what I was looking for. I answered each question as honestly as I could.
There were several more chats which oddly enough all seemed to bring me to roughly the same place — outside of an office building near the dentist.
These conversations, late one Wednesday afternoon, transpired into an offer and a big change in career that didn’t look like it would be possible.
Second Occasion
The second time I went through the job search, was when I left my career in digital marketing, realizing that it wasn’t for me at the end of it.
I was thrust back into the job search process after less than twelve months thinking it would be much easier this time because I had become somewhat of a veteran at it after more than 50+ rejections the previous time.
On the first day out of digital marketing, I started the process. I assembled a spreadsheet of all the possible careers available to me and the people that might play a part in helping me get there. Then, I picked up the phone and started reaching each person.
Once I’d exhausted the list of people I knew, I then started contacting strangers through LinkedIn at target companies, to see what might happen. There were lots of people that said no, told me to go away and remained silent to my requests (the best form of rejection).
After a week, it felt normal. After two weeks, it felt odd. After three weeks, something was up. After two months, I started to feel a bit sick about the whole process.
Each week that passed in my job search got harder and harder. I got down again to the final few options and started telling people the process was almost over.
Then, in one single day, all three options said no at the eleventh hour, right before disclosing a tangible offer. I was shocked.
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That weekend was one of the toughest.
The noise in my head from all the rejections was deafening. Monday came around and it felt like I had a hangover. I did not want to wake up.
I checked my text messages and a former colleague I’d worked with a while back wanted to know if I was still “on the market.” Carefully, I explained that I was without sounding desperate. Through a series of introductions, phone calls and meetings, I ended up getting an offer for an opportunity that was far better than anything I’d found myself or could even create out of thin air.
The best part should have been that moment where I got the job. It wasn’t.
Even though I now had the right job after a lengthy, multi-part series that was the job search, it wasn’t the highlight.
It felt good and there was some excitement, but there was so much more that both job searches had taught me which outweighed any job title, money or industry that would result from my efforts.
The 2 best parts of the job search were:
1. The process
When you go through the job search and have the inevitable tough time, it’s humbling at the end to reflect.
The job search teaches you to be humble.
You become grateful and humble because of the process — or you become more humble and grateful if you were already. These are two powerful traits that will help you in the rest of your career.
You’ll also become empathetic when someone you know goes through the same job search or if you are lucky enough to become a hiring manager and take part in someone else’s job search.
2. Watching strangers help
This one can make a grown man like me burst into tears.
The best part of the job search was having complete strangers who didn’t know me, come out of nowhere and do the following:
- Pay for my ticket to seminars to help me build skills
- Invite me to their events so I could meet new people, and most of all, not suffer from loneliness
- Send me kind emails and ask how I was (and how they could help)
- Take me out for coffee and provide advice and offer to help
Then there were the people I did know — such as former bosses — who took me out for lunch, mentors who flew to Melbourne to visit, and friends who invited me to their beach house to relax and let my career worries subside.
You learn through tough experiences like searching for a job that people are actually pretty decent and kind.
All Rights Reserved for Tim Denning
Productivity Hub 