Intro

Having been in design for over 10 years, I’ve gone through the experience of searching for a new job while being employed and unemployed. As you might expect, looking for another job while you are already employed is objectively easier as it takes the pressure off of the immediacy of making a move.

Now, you could argue that you shouldn’t stay in a job that makes you miserable, and to that, I wouldn’t push back. However, I would add that there are many aspects to the logistics that go into searching for a new job, and what I would recommend to you isn’t the same for everyone else.

I will say that if you are miserable in your job and you have enough financial stability to easily get you through 6-months, you’re not in the worst place to leave a job without something lined up. That being said, the job market is unpredictable and currently is insanely competitive.

In one of my old roles, after experiencing salary cuts, missed payrolls, furloughs, and a toxic workplace, I left without having anything else lined up. It took a couple of months for me to grasp what it was doing to me, but I became miserable each time I reached the office parking lot. It impacted my happiness and relationships outside of work.

I needed help, and I got it, but it had its challenges. The lessons I learned in this experience are now engrained in my mind so that I can recognize similar signs and work to find solutions before they get to that level, and never let it happen again.

Setting Realistic Goals

Whether you are employed or unemployed at the time of searching, you shouldn’t go into it thinking it’s going to be a breeze. I’ve done it and I see others do it. This is the easiest way to set yourself up for failure and is why it’s important that you set realistic goals in your search.

What do these goals look like? For you, I’m not sure, but I’ll share some examples of what I’ve done in a couple of my recent searches.

Be intentional, don’t apply to everything

I see mixed reviews on this perspective of job searching, but this is how I’ve felt over the past few years and is where I’m at now. I don’t apply to every Senior or Staff level Product Design role that I come across. This is for a few reasons. Here’s three:

1. I’m not good at pretending I’m interested in work that I’m not interested in. I’ve never been able to get myself to work in an industry that I have no interest in and I don’t see this changing anytime soon.

2. It’s draining. For me, I like to take the time to tailor my resume and cover letter (yeah, I know) to a specific role to increase my odds of getting interviews. I’m not a “throw my resume at all the jobs and see what sticks” kind of person.

3. As you can imagine, applying to every job you see is most likely going to increase the amount of interviews you don’t get. That’s not the reason I don’t do it, but I have the time to put more of myself into the process.

Managing rejection

Competition is great as it pushes people and companies to do better and to be better, and also means many other talented and qualified candidates are your competition in the job search. If you’ve come across a job you’re in love with, it’s safe to say that 100 other people did as well.

What took me the longest to get over is that many factors outside of your control determine whether you get the job or not. Come to think of it, I still find myself getting frustrated at this and I turn to blaming myself or trying to figure out what I did so I don’t make the same mistake twice. Sometimes, it’s a sheer difference in talent, which I get. Other times, it’s a simple mistake in one of the seven rounds of interviews candidates have to go through, which I hate passionately, but understand.

Being able to manage rejection and reflect on your process is going to work wonders in your search. It’s not going to make rejection feel enjoyable, but it will make it tolerable. The first place I go when I’m rejected, especially after multiple rounds of interviews, is to blame myself. And, while I could have made a mistake that cost me a job vs someone who didn’t, it’s more so the framing of it that I’ve fine-tuned for years so it’s not as unhealthy.

The difference between what I used to do vs what I do now is dwell. I used to dwell on rejection to the point where I’d feel angry when I had to think about it or if it was brought up in conversation. This comes from me masking feelings of embarrassment with frustration or anger so that others don’t feel bad for me.

I’ve found it very helpful to analyze why it didn’t work out, and move on. Way easier said than done.

Bonus: Find support

No TL;DR for this, I want you to read it.

I was going to save this for another post because I can easily write 1,500 words about it, and maybe I still will. But, this was such a huge reason why I handled leaving that toxic company in 2018 in, looking back, a scarily unhealthy way.

Whether you think it’s right or wrong, or an outdated way of thinking (there are nuances, but I don’t disagree), boys are raised and taught to be “providers” and “protectors” of the family. I do feel that Millenials and GenZ are finding healthy ways to think about this differently, but I didn’t have this in 2018.

How I coped with not having a job and feeling like a failure was with isolation and video games. I didn’t want to see friends and family (I barely wanted to talk to them), I would leave social events early, I was short with people, and I didn’t know how to process and talk about what I was feeling. I felt lost, ashamed, depressed, and like I failed myself and my girlfriend (now wife 💍) who moved across the country with me a year before to start our lives in California.

It was a dark time for me. Experiencing this period of darkness, and being willing to do the work to learn to reflect, process, communicate, and move forward is why I am able to go into any job search feeling more confident than ever, even when it doesn’t go as planned.

Your friends, family, and network are your support system and it’s so easy to isolate yourself from them when things go wrong, but those are exactly the times you should ask for their time, conversations, and support. If you’ve been laid off or are going through a tough time, there are people out there who can relate, you just have to find them.

Thank you

I like writing and sharing my experiences, so thank you for taking the time to read through this. As always, you can find me on LinkedIn. Feel free to reach out with any questions, comments, or feedback as I look to write about relevant topics. Check out some open job postings below!

Open product, design, and engineering jobs