Job Anxiety

[dogsmakemehappy]

I’ve been interviewing for a new job over the past few weeks. I’ve done three interviews at a place and they’re letting me know this coming week whether I have the spot or not. I’ve been trying to get a job in my career field since October and it’s really making me anxious. I need this job and I’m tired of getting turned down because more people have experience. Just needed to voice this to see if it helped calm me down

[AZ1970]

The fact that you have had three interviews is promising. I know job hunting can be overwhelming and frustrating. Try to find some things to keep yourself busy. Worrying can't change the outcome one way or another. If this doesn't work out, you have had some great interviewing experience. But it sounds like it very well could be the one.

[dogsmakemehappy in reply to AZ1970]

Thank you! It definitely was good interviewing experience. Fingers crossed it’s the one! I appreciate your response

[kenster1 in reply to dogsmakemehappy]

to be asked back 3 times sounds like you impressed fingers crossed you get good news.

[mvillarreal]

Funny how you mention this. I've been job hunting the past couple days and all the fliers say, "Experience in X required." After a while I'm like, "So if no one hires anyone without previous experience, how do people even get experience?"

[dogsmakemehappy in reply to mvillarreal]

Right??? Baffles me. I have two degrees, one of those a masters for my career field and yet I need 3 years experience to get a job.... like okay how?!

[AnonymousLlama in reply to dogsmakemehappy]

I think it's a matter of figuring out which job is going to lead to the one you want. In this economy, you can't assume that having a college degree is going to get you into a job that's exactly (or anything like) what you were hoping for right away. I think (or I'm hoping) that for me, my degree might matter farther down the line--I won't hit a wall where I've got the experience but not the degree.

[dogsmakemehappy in reply to AnonymousLlama]

Makes sense. We’ll see what happens

[TAPNewEngland]

If it's meant to be, it will happen. Don't think about hoping to get the job because I wouldn't want you to potentially get let down. You need confidence and the way to get it is by always practicing your interviewing skills. Knowledge is confidence!

[dogsmakemehappy in reply to TAPNewEngland]

Yes confidence is hard to come by for me so any experience in that is great

[TAPNewEngland in reply to dogsmakemehappy]

I hear you. Do whatever it takes to remain confident. Hang up sticky notes with positive thoughts and there are even smartphone apps to get daily inspirational sayings.

[dogsmakemehappy in reply to TAPNewEngland]

Absolutely. I appreciate you replying

[B4andafter]

I used to work in Human Resources. Pat yourself on the back for 3 interviews! Certain professions may require some level of experience but too often recruiters bypass real gems of candidates because the recruiter and/or hiring manager don't look realistically at the "minimum" experience required to do the job but how much experience the previous person occupying the position had (or relying on an outdated position description). I'd hire less experience with a right stuff candidate over someone who met the education/experience criteria but had a poor attitude. I can't "train" attitude. And, with all the automated candidate tracking systems if you enter 2 years experience vs 3 years, these systems automatically kick out your resume and the recruiter never sees it. Aargh! Therefore, it's not entirely you that is responsible for not getting the job. One other option is if you are not the selected candidate, you could very politely ask the recruiter or HR contact if they could share with you what areas you could focus (improve) on in your job search. They may not answer you, but if they believe in their recruiting process, they should give you insight.

[dogsmakemehappy in reply to B4andafter]

I really appreciate the insight. I’m hoping it works and if it doesn’t then I will definitely ask what areas I could work on.... hopefully they don’t say more experience because I cannot get that