An ongoing job search yielding few results can be incredibly soul destroying. Application after application turns into a blur and after a while you’re losing track as to how many companies and agencies you’ve sent your CV to. What makes things worse is apart from an automated e-mail acknowledgement, you know in your heart that you probably won’t hear anything further.

I’m pretty much at that point right now. I have a non-negotiable deadline of a month today (3 June) to get a job paying what I need it to pay. If that deadline passes then I have to give my landlord notice and move over 100 miles away from the area I live, to live with my parents. For a woman of my age that’s an almost unthinkable prospect, especially given that work in the area my parents are is scarce at best and very badly paid. 

Yes, things are getting desperate. Since my agency appointment last week, I’ve had another meeting with a different agency, plus I have another meeting booked for this coming Friday. I’ve lost count at the amount of jobs I’ve applied for; it must be between 10 and 20 per week. Although my preference is to work in Reading town centre, I’m looking county-wide and even looking in Oxfordshire, Hampshire and London. My problem is that no agencies seem to have anything on their books and I’m getting little return on my job hunting efforts. This is a dangerous time, not only for my bank balance and independence, but also for my mindset.

However, it’s essential to maintain a healthy and positive outlook, even when things do seem hopeless. If you let despair take hold then it’s likely that you’ll end up losing hope. So cheer up! Go for a walk, have a break from job hunting for an evening or so. Spoil yourself with a bath, buy a (cheap) bottle of plonk or just have a bit of “you” time. Call a friend and have a chat, watch a mindless DVD or jump round the living room to some energetic music for a bit. Get constructive – make an action plan and a list of new places to send your CV to. Even getting angry is better than losing hope; go punch the bed if you have to – getting the aggression out of your system can be very cathartic.

So my seemingly impossible quest for gainful employment continues – for a month at least…

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