let’s face it. this job economy sucks all kinds of things and there’s very little that anyone can do about it. 

in the past, determination and ego were all i needed to get my foot in the door and get an offer later in the week. i would network with employees i knew at the companies i wanted to work for, and i’d send out resumes to multiple people in the agency. then, i would swagger in, tell them of my accomplishments and make a joke or two. it’s a hard pill to swallow, but those times are history, like gas under $2/gallon and when only ER surgeons had cell phones. 

today’s landscape resembles more of a hyena’s drought-infested wasteland than the martini lunches of yesterday (which was probably only about two-three years ago). scraps of jobs are usually only left available after someone else is through with them (either because of moving or because they found a meatier scrap somewhere else). once that scrap becomes available, you have hundreds of hyena’s striking, clawing, and chewing their way to victory. sometimes, a lucky hyena has found a way to a scrap that nobody had sniffed out before. and sometimes, a particularly competitive hyena will cause enough damage to the other hyenas to render themselves harmless and defenseless. 

those lucky and competitive hyenas are few, amongst the hundreds of other damaged, thirsty and wide-eyed hungry. the hundreds of us that are left have a multitude of options at our disposal, though some of those alternatives may seem more like tofu than a scrap of meat. some hyenas will give up and starve. some will try an entirely new landscape. some will eat tofu.

me? i’ve decided to rest. rest and strategize. jumping into the huddle at every tasty-looking scrap of meat has me (and my ego) bloody and bruised. this is no way to go into the fights that really count. i’ve toughened up, and now, its time to rest. what this means for me is volunteering, exercise, focusing on hobbies (like cooking), looking for internships that have nothing to do with my field (just to try some other flavors), and, most importantly, not searching for a job every day.

the problem with searching for a job every day is that very little changes on the job boards from day to day. in the wasteland, it’s like searching for a drink of water in the same dried pond. it was just dust and cracked dirt yesterday. most likely, it will look the same today. that doesn’t mean that over some time, the pool will not replenish itself, but it will only make me more thirsty to visit the dried pond every single day.

ego is one of your best job hunting tools, and it can be a delicate thing. preserve it and find other ways to nurture it during this drought. remember, even if you’re not using your ego to help you win the battles today, you don’t know what potential victories could be in front of you down the road.