Job searches stalled by over-inflated egos are one of the biggest challenges that job hunters face today, especially if you were in a managerial or executive position. The change in status – employment and socially – wreaks havoc on the ego and how you deal with it can make a big difference on how quickly you land your next position.
Kathy Marcus shares her insights into why the ego stalls a job search and how to fix it.
Day 9 – The Bad: Letting Your Ego Stall your Job Search
We have been leaders, senior engineers, professors, and top sales and marketing professionals. We’ve had successful careers and now we find ourselves in transition, often with little or no notice.
There might be days where we drive 20 minutes to meet with a recruiter who spends 12 minutes with us. There may be other days where former employees or colleagues respond to our networking invitations with a ‘we’re not hiring’ response.
And finally, there may be times when the hiring manager never follows up to tell us we weren’t the chosen candidate. All of these actions can leave us feeling humiliated, resentful and unmotivated to continue our job search activities.
While employed, we may have been respected, deferred to and had people look to us for direction. We most likely had healthy egos as a result. Now that we are in transition, we need to change our perspective and accept that our role has changed temporarily.
As job seekers, we need to rely on the kindness of strangers and make it easier for them to help us by eliminating any sense of entitlement and accepting that our current role is very different from the ones we held while employed. Only then can we put ourselves out there and attend the workshops, networking events and one-on-one sessions with realistic expectations.
Set realistic expectations for yourself in your new role as job seeker and keep disappointment at bay when you aren’t treated in the same manner as when you were employed.
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