Stressed by job search

QUESTION: Why can’t I get a job? At one point I was thinking it was the politics of the workforce in Jamaica, whereby it’s a ‘links things’ for you to be lucky to get a job. However, I have grown to abandon that thought. Yet I am left baffled. What could possibly be the problem? It has really left me utterly frustrated and stressed. Please could you help me? – Y. R.

CAREERS: Thanks for your letter. It had to be edited down for length.

It can be any of a number of reasons why you can’t get a job. In the final analysis, only you can tell what is the likely reason. You say that at one point, you wondered if you had to have ‘links’ to be lucky enough to get a job. You have grown to abandon that thought. I don’t know specifically what you mean by that.

But I will say people still get jobs because of who they know and who know them. Nothing is wrong with that, once a person does that above board. Imagine that two people used to work at the same company, and one gets employed elsewhere. Let’s think of that as Person A.

The other person, B, leaves after a time. It is perfectly legitimate for Person A, to recruit Person B, knowing of his record. Person A can rest easier knowing he has someone in person B in whom he has full confidence. So if you have a connection, use it up.

Let him or her know you are job hunting and the kind of work you’re looking. So I hope you have not abandoned that thought.

You have let unemployment get to you. This is what is noticeable by what you have written; both what is shown and what couldn’t be printed. I understand that you are frustrated and depressed. But staying in such a state will not help you. You must get yourself out of the frame of mind and look forward with a renewed, energised attitude.

You cannot allow despair or despondency to get the better of you. These states are self created. They arise because you cast your mind on them. Not only that. But you keep thinking and thinking on it, over and over again. You have to take charge of your mind, become the manager of your state.

When you say ‘I just do not know anymore’, I understand your frustration. I really do.

It is that state of mind why you are so confused. When you are in such frame of mind, everything seems hopeless. You have to take your mind off the lack of responses from those applications. Talk to a good friend or a trained counsellor, and he or she will give you another perspective.

Or you can go to YouTube and search for Wayne Dyer, Mel Robbins or Brendon Burchard. Choose one link and listen to it. You may ask what help that could be, but by listening to them, you will begin to change how you are thinking. That may be enough to shift your mood.