One crucial factor to the success of your job search is confidence. Being unaware of your own potential, or being too timid to apply for suitable could result in your ending up in a job which does not stretch you and will become boring very quickly.

No-one feels supremely confident all the time and a little anxiety before a job interview is perfectly normal. So is the thought that other people might be better qualified that you. However, being so anxiety that you don’t apply for any jobs, or jobs for which you are over-qualified shows a lack of self-esteem. It’s important to remember also that no-one is confident in every aspect of their lives. A student who is an excellent basketball play may be confident on the court but completely lacking in confidence when he has to write an academic assignment.

How can you improve your self-esteem and use it your advantage when looking for a job? Here are a few tips to help you:

Talk to someone who is familiar with your abilities and who has encouraged and motivated you in the past. This could be a family member, a friend or colleague.

Find activities about which you already feel confident, no matter how insignificant or unrelated to work they may seem. So if you can sing, cook great meals, bake delicious cakes, play a sport well or have a hobby in which you are skilled, do it more often and allow yourself to be conscious of the feeling of confidence it brings. Allow yourself to enhance that feeling by basking in it afterwards.

Make a list of your achievements. These can be successes you’ve had as a student, in previous jobs or in any other aspect of your life. This will help you to feel better about yourself and add to the feelings of confidence.

List your transferable skills. This will give you a more realistic view of your capabilities and you may be surprised to realize just how many skills you have. Include soft skills, such as communication skills, team building skills and the ability to work on your own initiative. These may not seem very important, but in fact, employers state that soft skills are the ones in which candidates are most lacking. So if you have good soft skills, you are very much in demand in the marketplace.

You can also increase your chances of getting an interview by taking the time to produce a good résumé, researching the job and the company in advance. If offered an interview, you can then improve the likelihood of being hired by preparing answers to questions in advance.

Not everyone who appears confident really is. In fact many of those who seem super-confident on the outside are actually quite the opposite underneath. So if you work on boosting your self-esteem, you will soon be as confident as many other applicants.

© Waller Jamison
http://www.woljam.com/