5 Tips To Support The Mental Health Of Job Seekers During Their Search

The stress of job seeking can lead to an array of mental health issues for applicants. Stress and anxiety can interfere with a good interview performance. What will the interview be like? Who will conduct it? Or will I be able to be on the top of my game? The interview hurdle is even greater for the 40% of the population who are introverts. Job seeker anxiety can be so great, that 70% of applicants lie on their resumes. Others resort to using AI to polish their resumes, although the practice is frowned upon. Some companies ask candidates to attend multiple interviews, and sometimes the process drags on to a fourth, fifth, sixth—even as much as nine rounds, and candidates are unclear what the final interview is, according to some accounts.

Aerotek conducted a 2023 Job Seeker Survey of over 1,500 job seekers across a diverse array of industries that provided insights into the circumstances and mental health challenges job seekers are currently facing. They discovered that job seekers are finding it difficult, working harder and spending more time looking for jobs.

• Over 70% of job seekers said they felt they needed to exert more than an average amount of effort to find a job in this economy.
• 67.7% felt their current job search was more difficult than their last one. Adding to that concern, experience over the last three months.
• A majority of job seekers (53.6% to be exact) said they thought employers have slowed down the hiring process.
• Just 13.5% thought the hiring process was faster, while 32.9% thought it was what they expected.
• 74% of job seekers reported their financial situation was the same or worse compared to this time in 2022.
• Over 55% of respondents said the economy/job market was the most significant barrier or challenge they were facing in their job search.

Ways Job Seekers Can Support Their Well-Being

I spoke with Sara Staggs, vice president of strategic operations at Aerotek to find out more about the mental health challenges that job seekers face. She told me that searching for work has always been hard, but in recent years it has become even more challenging as employers have posted more job openings while hiring nearly the same amount of people. “Over 70% of job seekers who responded to our survey said they felt they needed to exert more than an average amount of effort to find a job in this economy,” she explained, “and 67.7% felt their current job search was more difficult than their last one. With so many jobs available, it can be difficult to determine what job makes the most sense for you. It can also be mentally taxing to apply for numerous positions without receiving positive responses—or in some cases, receiving no response at all.”

Staggs gave five tips for job seekers to support their well-being during the search:

1. Know what it is you want to do and work with someone like a recruiter to determine what kind of jobs align with your skills, goals and interests.
2. Learn more about your ambitions and investigate the opportunities most relevant to those ambitions.
3. When you do find a match, put your best foot forward with your application and be persistent in your follow up.

Full article @ https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanrobinson/2024/01/05/5-tips-to-support-the-mental-health-of-job-seekers-during-their-search/