Job hunting and depression

@intuitiveWater6984

I actually feel this way a lot. I'm in a really similar situation, so I would love to hear what people have to say on the topic as well.

That being said, even though I feel like I'm struggling with similar things, I don't think that disqualifies me from giving my two cents. What I've tried to do so far is to remember this: It's not my job to say no to myself. I don't actually know what they're looking for, and I should let someone else be the one to tell me "no."

Using that as a guide has helped me a lot. I've applied to some jobs that seem way over my head, and others that actually seem a bit beneath my skill level. A couple I found, seemed tailor made for my experience. Guess which ones called me back and have given me intervews, and which ones have rejected me? The ones I though I would have in the bag, they rejected me without even talking to me. The ones that felt over my head are the ones I'm interviewing for. Then there's a hecka lotta jobs that I just haven't heard anything back from, one way or another.

I had to finally decide that I just would apply to a ton of jobs, regardless of where I thought my skillset was. Obviously, due to the responses I've been getting, I don't fully know what the different organizations want in an employee. If I let them decide, instead of writing myself off before I even apply, I'll end up much better off.

One more thing I want to add though: getting rejection is hard. There have been many points during this period of time so far (it's only been like 1-2 weeks since I graduated with my bachelors), where I wanted to give up. I didn't think it was worth it. No one was calling me back. No one was giving me an interview, and I really struggled (a lot) not having a plan, and not knowing where I was headed. That mindset still pops up, especially when I get a lot of rejections in a row. I've tried to be proactive about it. On days when I feel overcome with inadequacies, I've tried to get out of my head by going out and doing something with friends, talking to a family member, or going for a drive, etc. That's helped. I've also tried to make myself get out of the house. I've been struggling a lot with finding the motivation to get started. When that's been happening, I usually have tried to make a plan to go somewhere like the Public Library first thing in the morning. I go to the library before I have a chance to talk myself out of it. Then I'm there with nothing to do except work on productive things. Doing that has really helped me get applications submitted that I never would have had the motivation to do from my house.

Anyway, there are just a couple things that have been helping me through this so far. I hope that helps. And as I said, if anyone else has more advice, I'd love to hear that too! I've been saying the things that have worked so far, but there has also been plenty of things that haven't worked, and days where I got absolutely nothing done or I thought no one would ever want to hire me.

I was there. Back in 2006 I got laid off. I decided that my job was to put in at least one job application per day. That got me about one interview per month. Took me 5 months to get a job in my field. Got laid off a year and a half later. Went back to try putting in a job app a day, couldn't do it. There were no jobs. I was lucky to get one in per week. Nine months of that, only one or two job interviews. One day, I got a cold call from a temp agency. "Can you go to a job interview on Monday?" Of course, happy to. "I will call you back in five minutes with more information." Waited five minutes. "Oh, hi. I made a mistake. Can you start work on Monday?" OMG. I worked there as a temp, different jobs all the time. Now I am working there full-time permanent, thanks to some help from good people.

What does all that mean? No matter how good or bad you are at appllications, there is alway hope. Hope for a temp job, hope for a full-time job. You may have to drive farther, you may need to use other skills. You are valuable, you have been educated and trained. You can do it. It happened to me, it can happen to you (I think that is from a song).