How Can You Make Your Search a Little More Fun?
Curt Skene’s In2Win! Career Coaching Supplement.
A positive mindset is directly connected to your ability to succeed, so start enjoying your job search today! No one ever said all aspects of your search had to be painful but many executives make it appear that way and it shows. Like other fun activities, if you make your job search enjoyable you’ll spend more time doing it thereby increasing your chances of success. The first place to start is with making your job search work area more fun!
Add color, motivational quotes, cartoons and music to your environment so every day you get a shot of cheeriness. Consider a work area that has windows and is bright and vibrant. As you plan your search strategies ask yourself how you can make this a little more fun? Everyday clip out a job search comic and share it with others.
Perhaps you can create a job search competition against another executive or design a personal scavenger hunt for your next networking event. One great idea is to score each day like a baseball game with different activities worthy of a single, double, triple or homerun. Play against another executive and create a weekly “World Series”! You may consider fun questions to ask others just to keep things light, playful and interesting.
Humor, when used at appropriate times, can break down barriers and build rapport. Use it wisely. Since “fit” is the number one criterion of most employers they are often attracted to candidates they perceive as fun and enjoyable to be around.
Employers hire for fit as well as capability. Positive energy can make others want you on their team.
Why I Wrote This Page
Because people make judgments about competence partly based on how they feel in someone’s presence, and that feeling works as a mental shortcut even though the two aren’t logically connected.
This is a version of the halo effect applied to mood: being someone people genuinely enjoy being around quietly makes them rate you as more competent too, not because you’ve proven anything more, but because positive feeling and positive judgment blur together in the brain. A search that’s miserable to run doesn’t just wear you down, it shows, and it works against you in exactly the rooms where you need to seem energized.
This isn’t about pretending to be upbeat. It’s about protecting your actual energy so the person people meet is the one worth hiring.
Action Steps
- Redesign your search environment deliberately, color, music, something that makes the daily grind feel less gray.
- Build one small competitive or playful element into your week, a scorecard, a challenge with another professional in transition, anything that adds energy back in.
- Notice when your search starts feeling joyless, and treat that as a signal to adjust, not just push through.
In2Win! Afterthought
Curt’s current observations and updated guidance will be added here.
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