The New Year is peak season for job seekers, many people take the fresh start as inspiration to look for a new job. To mark the New Year, Mark Williams has developed the MW Insights series #MWinsights, we aim to inspire UAE job seekers and offer you the practical help needed to recognise and promote your experience and talent. In the MW Insights series, you will have free access to advice from the UAE’s most experienced headhunters.
Is your lack of confidence is dragging you down and holding you back from fully engaging in an effective job search? Job hunting can be stressful and impact your self-esteem, but a lack of confidence can be managed, and you aren’t alone. Your job search can be, in itself, a great exercise in confidence building. Here are the best ways to boost your confidence and help propel you towards the job you’ve always wanted.
Positive Mindset Change your mindset from “I am one of many job-seekers” to “I am an expert in my field who is always on the hunt for their next challenge”. Starting your job search in a positive mindset is essential, you are about to embark on an intense period of research, networking and relationship building. View this as a positive period of change, be open to talking to new people and remember that referrals and recommendations are the best way to secure a new job!
Control Your Internal Dialogue Examine your internal dialogue: the words we use have a profound effect on our self-confidence as we believe and embody our words. Ensure you are talking to yourself in compassionate and motivating language. Make a concerted effort to silence your self-doubt: practice positive affirmations, write a list of your achievements or stop and ask yourself if you would talk to your best friend or child in the way you talk to yourself. With practice you can reverse a negative internal dialogue and make confidence your default setting.
Don’t Go it Alone Find a support network to keep you inspired, either connect with a friend who is in the same job-hunting situation or your local networking group. You can give each other emotional support, motivation, share job leads and networking opportunities.
Fake It Till You Make It Research shows that simply pretending to be confident results in feeling confident. In other words, there’s science behind the theory of faking it till you make it!
Visualise Success Having a clear vision of your career goals and a plan to achieve your ambitions is crucial to feeling confident to make it happen. You don’t have to have your entire life planned out, but you do need to know where and why you want to go next – dream bold and you will make it happen!
Keep Physically Active It can be easy to spend hours infront of a computer completing job applications and networking on LinkedIn. Take the time to pause, get outside and remember that fresh air and exercise have a positive effect on your self-confidence and helps to reduce anxiety.
Throughout your job search you will have highs and lows in your self-confidence, the most beneficial thing you can do is stay professional and positive. Your increased confidence will continue to self-perpetuate and will lead you towards new opportunities. Embrace each application and interview as a networking opportunity and a chance to hone your self-promotion skills. Take advice from recruitment experts, such as the team at Mark Williams, the more you engage with others the more you will gain connections, credibility and therefore self-confidence.
We’d love to hear in the comments box below your top tips to boost self-confidence, what do you say to friends or colleagues who are embarking on a job search?
Next week NW Insights will be giving you the tools to build on your new self-confidence by expanding your sense of self-worth #MWinsights For more articles please follow our Commercial Manager Celia Mounsey on LinkedIn
