3 Mindset Shifts You Need to Make Before You Start Your Job Search

You’ve built up great skills and experience in your current role, and now you’re ready to move on to the next level.

Or maybe you’ve spent the past ten years in the same company or field, and now you’re ready to shift gears and transition to a new industry.

Or perhaps you’re struggling to keep yourself motivated at a job that doesn’t align with your values, or one where your ideas or opinions are constantly challenged.

Whatever situation you find yourself in, you’re ready to look for a new job.

You know the tactical things you need to do before starting your job search – updating your resume and LinkedIn profile, reaching out to former colleagues or mentors to learn about job opportunities, making a list of the top companies or job titles you’ll search for.

But you may be overlooking the most powerful tool in your job search arsenal: your mindset.

Your mindset is an established set of attitudes you hold about your life and what you believe about yourself. Your mindset has the power to impact your success, and it plays a critical role in how you cope with and overcome challenges.

Before you start looking for your next job, it’s important that you get clear on your thoughts, beliefs and attitudes, and ensure that they’ll set you up for a successful job hunt.

Here are 3 mindset shifts you need to make before you start your job search:

1. Your thoughts create your reality

Putting yourself out there is hard. Especially when you’ve applied for job after job and haven’t heard back from a single company or recruiter. It can leave you feeling frustrated, hopeless, and in the worst case – desperate, especially if you feel trapped in a toxic work environment or recently lost your job.

When you’re ready to leave your current job or company, it can be so easy to fall into negative thoughts about how terrible your job is, or how you can’t wait to leave this company, or that you don’t know how you’ll make it one. more. day.

If you truly believe that your job is sucking the life out of you, you might feel frustrated, overwhelmed, or unappreciated. Those emotions are powerful because they cause you to behave in ways that reinforce your beliefs.

For example, if you’re feeling unappreciated for working all night to finish a report, or for bringing in a new client, or for coming up with a new way to save money, you’ll wonder why you put in the effort in the first place. You’ll give up and go back to the tedious day-to-day tasks that need to get done instead of expanding your skillset, learning something new, or leveraging your strengths. Which will lead you to feel unappreciated, undervalued, and like your job is sucking the life out of you.

Likewise, thinking things like, “I’ll never find a job,” or “No one wants to hire me,” or “I’ll be stuck in this job for the rest of my career,” are reinforcing your reality. Those emotions will be all over your cover letter and resume. Your application will be passed over for someone who sounds more confident, even if you’re more qualified and have better experience. And you’ll continue in this cycle of desperately applying to jobs, never hearing back, and becoming even more hopeless.

Shifting from these negative thought patterns to more positive, confident thoughts is not easy. It takes time and patience, and above all, it starts with paying attention to the current thoughts you’re having.

Start by noticing when you’re thinking negatively or complaining about your current job or job search. Then consciously change that thought. Instead of thinking, “I’ll never find a job,” try, “My perfect job is out there waiting for me.”

I know it sounds a bit woo-woo, but shifting your mindset helps you build healthy confidence. When you’re optimistic about your job search or can find things about your current job that you like, you’ll start to behave in ways that improve your situation.

You may ask a friend or mentor to review your resume and help you identify your core strengths and most valuable experiences. You may decide to upgrade your resume to a more modern format to give it a fresh look and feel. You may call former colleagues or message LinkedIn connections to learn about potential job openings that you’d be a great fit for.

Coming from a place of positivity and optimism makes it easier for you to put yourself out there. Confidence comes from taking action, and you’re more likely to take action when you feel that you have a shot at landing an interview for your dream job.

It all starts with your thoughts and beliefs. If you change your thoughts about your job search, you’ll change your feelings, behaviors, and outcomes.

2. You are 100% responsible for your life

It’s no secret that women are less likely to apply for jobs when we feel that we don’t meet 100% of the qualifications.

• “Five years of experience? Oh, I only have four.”

• “I have tons of experience and expertise in this area. I just don’t have this specific certification.”

• “I don’t think my experience in x will translate to y.”

And it’s not for the reasons you think.

Sure, having more confidence in ourselves and a belief that we can be successful in a role helps, but it’s not the only solution.

A recent study by Hewlett Packard revealed that the top reason women didn’t apply for jobs when they didn’t meet all of the qualifications wasn’t because they didn’t think they could do the job well.

No. They didn’t apply because they figured if they didn’t meet the qualifications, they wouldn’t be hired (or even interviewed), so they didn’t want to waste time or energy in applying.

As the author put it, “they didn’t see the hiring process as one where advocacy, relationships, or a creative approach to framing one’s expertise could overcome not having the skills and experiences outlined in the job qualifications.”

This is exactly how I landed my dream job in a boutique consulting firm with no “traditional” consulting experience. I didn’t come from a top consulting firm, but I had been an internal consultant my entire career. I knew those skills would translate to successfully leading teams and meeting client deliverables, and even though I didn’t have the “required” two years’ experience, I applied anyway.

I painted the picture of my experience in my cover letter, resume, and application, and I shared solid examples of my work experience and how this would align to what they were looking for. I controlled the narrative and didn’t let the “requirement” stop me from bringing value to the company.

Think about the last time you passed on applying for a job when you didn’t meet the qualifications. Was it because you didn’t believe you’d be successful? Or was it because you didn’t want to waste anyone’s time?

Just to be clear: this is YOUR life. And you are in the driver’s seat. You control how you spend your time, what jobs you choose to take, and what skills and experiences you want to build.

You can also control the narrative of your work experience. You can tell the story of how your unique strengths, skills, gifts and experiences align with the requirements in the job posting. You can advocate for yourself and the value you’ll bring to the company.

3. You already have everything you need to be successful

Even when we do meet all of the qualifications, there will be times when we feel like we aren’t enough. Not good enough, or smart enough, or don’t have enough experience, or don’t have enough strength to make a transition into a new field or industry.

Instead of looking externally to build your skills (going back to school, getting a certification, somehow formalizing your experience), look inside yourself.

What strengths, skills, gifts and experiences do you have today? What combination of those is something only you have? How can you use those unique traits to refresh your resume or boost the story in your cover letter?

When I work with clients on confidence and mindset, I always start with their strengths. I believe this is the best way to build a foundation of self-awareness.

Self-awareness helps us become at peace with who we are and better manage our thoughts, beliefs, emotions and reactions. Self-awareness is the foundation on which we’ll build confidence because it separates the real from the perceived. If we truly understand what’s real, instead of believing false things about ourselves (like we’re not good enough), we have a better chance at being confident and going after what we really want in life.

Plus, research shows that employees who use their strengths outperform those who don't. That’s coming to you straight from Gallup, the folks who developed the StrengthsFinder assessment.

Gallup also reports that people who use their strengths every day are three times more likely to live a higher quality of life. They found that people are happier, have less stress or anger, achieve their goals, have more respect from others, and feel more successful overall.

Understanding our strengths gives us a new language for understanding and discussing what we naturally do best, because, let’s face it – it can be hard to talk about ourselves without sounding braggy! Especially when it comes to job applications.

And the best part? You already have these strengths inside you. You already have everything you need to be successful – and that starts with understanding your strengths, how they show up in your life, and how you can leverage them to build your skills in a new area. No certificate required.

The Takeaway

Starting your job search from a place of doubt, fear, or frustration will only bring you more of those feelings. By shifting your mindset from fear to possibility, taking control of your personal narrative, and leveraging your unique strengths, you’ll start to build the confidence you need to apply for the jobs that interest you, even if you don’t meet all of the qualifications.

Take action now: Grab your journal and start by writing down the negative, doubtful, or fearful thoughts you have about your job search. Then, see if you can replace those thoughts with a positive one. You can also write a list of all of your strengths, accomplishments, and experiences. Writing positive thoughts helps to strengthen your mind-body connection and signals good-feeling emotions.

Take this practice one step further by writing your positive thoughts or achievements on sticky notes or a vision board, then placing them somewhere you will see them every day, like your bathroom mirror. Our brains are jampacked with thousands of thoughts each day, so give your brain the gentle reminder it needs to keep you feeling optimistic, confident, and powerful.