How do you keep up a first-rate job search from when you first start your search to when you get hired? Start with igniting a motivational wick. But how do you then direct your emotional charge? Let's start with a brief motivation test.
Your Job-Search Test
Use this job-search motivation test to see where you stand on a fearless job hunting search. Following the test we have six tips for you to improve your job-search motivation score. As a finale, we'll give you four high-powered psychological job-search techniques to turbo-charge your job-search drive.
Instructions
The job-search motivation test consists of six items followed by three answers: not me, sometimes me, like me. Score zero for "not me," one for "sometimes me," and two for "like me." Print out the test. Mark the answer that best describes how you see yourself now.
Not me Sometimes me Like me
1. I set goals for getting a good job. ____ ____ ____
2. I plan how to achieve my goals. ____ ____ ____
3. I see a job search as a challenge. ____ ____ ____
4. I refuse to get sidetracked by moods. ____ ____ ____
5. I focus on achieving results. ____ ____ ____
6. I keep up a realistic momentum. ____ ____ ____
Work first on improving your score on items you mark "two," then work on those marked "one." Then retake the test and see where you stand. Use the following to help improve your score and put yourself in a better position to get hired.
How to Score with a New Job
Here are six tips to improve your motivational test tally so you can score with a great new job:
1. Set achievable goals. The goals you set make a difference. Performance goals are reasonable, measurable, and achievable. You may have to stretch for them but you can reach them. A performance goal, such as making three network contacts a day, is measurable and achievable. A goal such as doing a successful job search is, however, too general, and can be a procrastination trigger.
2. Make a plan. When you have goals but no plans, this is like having a destination and not knowing how to get there. A basic plan may be good enough: what will you do first, second, third? Now you have a map. Knowing what to do and how to do it gives you a psychological edge over those who wish for what they want, but have no map to get there.
3. Adjust your attitude. View a job search as difficult, threatening, and uncertain, and you've already backed yourself into a corner. See the search as a challenge that you'll work to meet, and you can extinguish the emotional flames of threat thinking. This new attitude fits with a relaxed feeling of motivation. This type motivation makes a difference. See May 21, 2010 blog: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/science-and-sensibility/201005/top-tips-job-hunters-start-the-right-frame-mind
4. Don't wait for the right mood. Waiting to get into the right mood is a form of procrastination. Frankly, there are many uninspiring parts of a job search and even some filled with drudgery. If you don't feel like engaging a critical element in your job search task, tough. Push yourself to do it anyway. Motivation can follow action.
5. Keep your eye on the prize. You'll face many distractions while on your job-hunt. You're human, so sidetracking is normal. But if you do a little better in staying on track, you are likely to find that staying on track is motivational.
6. Time and pace your effort. There is a big difference between typical and maximum performances. Most job-search actions take typical performances where you persist by pacing yourself with reasonable consistency. Like most things in life, the right timing and pacing makes the difference. (In Aesop's fable, the fast rabbit lounged too often and the turtle finished first.)
Four Key Motivation Enhancement Techniques for a Successful Job Search
Add wind to your motivational sails by using a language of commitment, generating a passion for your search, gaining leverage, and optimizing your performances.
If you believe you will prevail in your search, then you are more likely to persist than if you tell yourself that the job market is too tough to manage. The first self-statement is a confidence builder. The second is a downer. The language of commitment helps erase "downer thinking." For example, "I'm determined to succeed" is a strong commitment. "Maybe I'll get around to a search when I feel like it" is a commitment to procrastinate. Talk to yourself in the language of affirmative commitment and you can confidently act on that belief.
Do you have a passionate purpose for following through on your search? Name this purpose and you give yourself an incentive to persist. For example, you are not just looking for a job. You are looking for a category of work that fits with your interests, temperament, and economic goals. Use this power of passionate purpose to harness your drive to achieve your work goals and to gain prosperity. See June 1, 2010 blog: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/science-and-sensibility/201006/top-tips-job-hunters-how-find-the-right-job-you
Go for the easy way and you can sabotage your search. That is because the easy way is often the hard way. Finding ways to take it easy and feel comfortable with a job search may work when you have all the time in the world. However, avoiding discomfort is often a formula for flopping when it comes to finding meaningful work. Get past short-term comfort urges and you position yourself to work for the bigger prize, which is the right job for you. Here is a crisp message: leverage your efforts by keeping the locus of your focus on what is basic for you to accomplish. You are more likely to feel positive emotions and less likely to get sidetracked.
You have readied yourself to describe your job knowledge and skills (declarative knowledge). Employers want to know you can do the job. So, how do you act to impress? Kick into a high quality presentation gear by using an optimal performance technique. This two-step motivational enhancement plan follows.
