Job Search Burnout and Easing its Weight
Job search burnout is common, but manageable. Learn more about what burnout entails, its risk factors, and how to cope with it.
You’ve tailored dozens of resumes and cover letters for job postings you’ve never heard back from. Trying to tune each application to convey sincere interest while proving you’re a good fit can be exhausting. When you’ve been doing it for months straight with no offer in sight, that exhaustion can turn into burnout. Up to two-thirds of jobseekers are experiencing it right now, which only shows that job search burnout is a widespread response rather than a personal failure. Understanding what burnout entails and what drives it can help you ease its weight on your life.
How burnout shows up
Searching for a job has been found to be just as exhausting as working one. A study on long-term jobseekers found that the job search produces the same clinical symptoms of burnout as a stressful workplace does: exhaustion, disillusion, and disengagement. The longer a job search persists, the worse these symptoms get, reducing jobseekers’ sense of effectiveness.
These symptoms bleed into jobseekers’ daily lives, too. People lose self-confidence and motivation without a job, which can prevent engagement in coping and reflective activities. It also impairs their ability to job search effectively, fueling a cycle of burnout.
"The offer will make it all worth it"
Many jobseekers facing seemingly endless silence and rejection perceive receiving an offer as the end to their distress. According to research on burnout and reemployment quality, jobseekers with elevated levels of fatigue during the job search ended up accepting lower-quality roles. Consequently, they held lower organizational commitment in their new roles, and higher intentions to quit.
Jobseekers may accept the first job offer they receive rather than one they’re truly interested in. For employers, this means heightened worker turnover rates.
Landing a role won’t mitigate the underlying issue, since burnout is more than the search itself. Additionally, some circumstances can make you feel its effects more deeply.
Why some searches are harder than others
Burnout doesn’t hit everyone at the same rate. Understanding what factors make people more at risk can help you recognize burnout early on.
Financial pressure
The urgency from an insufficient or absent income can push jobseekers into unsustainable job search habits. Without stable finances, jobseekers may feel compelled to spend every available hour applying to jobs to mollify guilt about doing something else. Financial difficulties were one of the strongest predictors of job search fatigue among unemployed job seekers.
Identity tied to work
For many people, their job isn’t a discrete part of their life, but a core part of themselves. A study on job insecurity found that even before people lose their jobs, the mere threat of unemployment induces feelings of lack of belonging and reduces motivation. When one’s identity is tied closely to their work, their job search becomes entangled with a search for self-worth as well, hastening the rate of exhaustion and stress.
When one's identity is tied closely to their work, their job search becomes entangled with a search for self-worth...
Lack of social support
Jobseekers without others to lean on have less of a buffer, which causes stress to accumulate quicker. Social support has been shown to ease the adverse mental health effects of unemployment in longitudinal studies. In fact, unemployed individuals with strong support networks reported better mental health than employed individuals with weak ones.
Length of unemployment
The longer you’ve been searching, the greater the depletion of your psychological resources needed to search effectively. A meta-analysis of 29 longitudinal studies confirmed that the longer the duration of unemployment, the worse the jobseeker’s life satisfaction and overall mental health. The depletion that occurs is a negative spiral of resource loss: the longer the search continues, income, status, and sense of accomplishment feel lessened, while demanding an even greater investment of energy and time that may not pay off.
Recognizing these risk factors can provide some clarity on how to give yourself some more grace during the job search. But if burnout is already underway, the next step is knowing what to do about it.
Finding your way through it
There isn’t a single fix for burnout, and what works depends on where you are in the process and your approach to self-care. Understanding these three steps can help make the next move less daunting, though.
1. Remind yourself it’s not just you
One of the fueling factors of burnout is self-doubt: equating a lack of response with a lack of competence. The first step is accepting how inherently challenging the job hunt is. LinkedIn’s Head of Economics for the Americas stated that hiring is down over 25% compared to pre-pandemic levels. Furthermore, the American Staffing Association found that 40% of jobseekers didn’t have a single interview in a one year span. The reality is that the job search has become an extremely demanding process for everyone. Struggling to advance with your applications isn’t necessarily a sign of ineptitude.
Silence and rejections have only increased since the pandemic. Millions of other qualified candidates are struggling with landing interviews, too.
2. Separate the search from the rest of your life
Job search burnout can often seep into other aspects of life, reducing your motivation to carry out day-to-day activities and participate in the things you once enjoyed. It’s important to maintain boundaries between applying for jobs and both your personal and work life. Allocate distinct time blocks for other kinds of work (e.g. caregiving, your current job, schoolwork, chores), non-work activities, and job hunting. Adhering to these separate blocks can also help compartmentalize anxiety that arises from the job search.
Truly step away
Most importantly, take actual breaks between these time blocks. Closing your tabs isn’t enough if you’re still preoccupied speculating about your application outcomes or new job postings. Dr. Sabine Sonnentag says that psychological detachment from work is integral for one’s well-being and life satisfaction. This means avoiding rumination about the search, and spending time on hobbies, with other people, or even in a meditative state of “nothing” instead.
Keeping your job search consolidated in one workspace that handles your resumes, cover letters, interview prep, and job tracking, makes it easier to close the tab and walk away. When your search spans multiple tabs and documents, it’s harder to feel like you’ve truly stepped away from it (and you might even be compelled to keep it open for convenience).
3. Connect with others
Lastly, get support from the people you love. Trying to build a healthy approach from scratch is difficult without a stable source of empathy from those around you. A study on jobseeking students found that support from peers and loved ones helped participants recognize and use their strengths more effectively, improving their overall wellbeing. The people in your network can both lend you an ear for venting and remind you of your talents during what can be a disquieting time of your life.
It’s okay if you don’t have that network in place yet. Online peer communities for jobseekers can connect you with people experiencing the same thing, or just give you a place to read through mindful job hunting advice. Local workforce development programs can also pair jobseekers with career coaches to provide support and help with accountability. The job search doesn’t need to be a lonely, isolated corner of your life.
Toward a lighter search
The job search wasn’t designed with jobseekers’ wellbeing in mind, but you are in control of how you move through the search. Give yourself some grace, set and stick to clear boundaries, and let other people carry some of the weight with you.
Hardly was built to make the job search feel less like a second job. It brings resumes, cover letters, job-application tracking, interview practice, messaging, and collaboration with career coaches onto one platform. Log on for the day with the comfort of knowing everything is organized for you at your fingertips, and, crucially, can be closed with the click of a button too.