Tame the Blame to Fire Up Your Job Search

By Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter

We all do it at one time or another. We blame someone or something for what’s going wrong in our lives. We can’t do something we want because of a law, so we blame the lawmakers. We can’t get into a certain school, so we blame the university’s board of admissions. We are tired, so we blame the neighbor’s dog for keeping us awake all night.

In the job search, there’s a lot of blame to go around. We can’t get a job, so we blame the human resources manager, the recruiter, the hiring manager, the resume writer or the economy for being enemies of the unemployed.

Understandably, there is a lot of frustration right now, and job search can be a soul-battering experience. At the end of the day, though, blame is a dangerous game. While there is certainly plenty of finger-pointing to go around, blame often leads to self-defeating behaviors. Those include:

1. Anger and Bad Attitude. These attitudes exude in email and in-person communications with potential job search influencers and interviewers. That chip on your shoulder is not appealing. No wonder no one wants to talk to you or respond to your resume submission.

2. Unwillingness to Change. This obstinance means you don’t listen to good advice, and thus, you keep doing the same thing over and over, yielding the same no-results outcome.

3. Inability to See Opportunity. Yes, opportunities are everywhere; they are in your email, in your social media stream, offline at the local industry association meeting or during personal downtime visiting with friends. If your vision is impaired, however, you aren’t seeing them; you are missing out.

Read the rest of the post, including 3 tips to help you change self-defeating behaviors, on Glassdoor.