You will get rejected!
Self esteem and confidence are two critical elements in a successful horse industry job search. Hunting for a horse job can hurt your self esteem and confidence at just about every turn. For starters, losing a job, not having a job, and spending months without finding a job are huge “downers”. It is important to do everything you can to prevent being trashed emotionally by the job hunt process.
The first step to avoiding hits to your self esteem and confidence is to treat your job search like a job. Spend the same time and effort on your horse industry job search as you would on a job. Spend eight hours a day, five days a week searching for potential contacts, networking, making contact, and building relationships. Then, take a couple of days off and have some fun.
When you work at your “job hunt job” the most critical thing to avoid is “rejection shock.” Rejection shock occurs when you apply to multiple jobs and get little or no response, or are rejected in some way by several employers. Being rejected in this way is very damaging. Thoughts go through your head like, “What’s wrong with me, I must not have the right skills, people don’t like me, I’ll never get a job.” These thoughts probably have nothing to do with the truth, but they hurt your outlook.
One very good way to ensure that you get rejection shock is to mass mail your resume hoping for a response. You may send out a hundred resumes to horse industry employer hoping that somebody has a job for you. Statistically, you will be lucky to get a response from 3-5 of the 100. It is also very likely that those 3-5 employers will not have a job for you. They may say something like “We will keep your resume on file.” You know which file that is, file 13. So, you have just been rejected by 100 employers. Don’t think that doesn’t hurt. It does. The worst thing you can do is conclude that you didn’t send out enough resumes and send another 100 to different employers. The experience is very likely to be the same and very likely to put you further in the dumps about your job search.
Forget mass mailing your resume. It is very likely to do you a lot more harm emotionally than good. Spend time researching equine employers who are actually hiring by using a service like Equimax. Research the employers you would actually like to work for and target your search to those employers. You may still get rejected a few times, but you will be dealing with a much smaller group of employers and your chances of success go way up.
By avoiding high volume rejection shock you save your self esteem and confidence. Remember, you have a lot to offer. If employers are having difficulty appreciating that, it may not be your fault.
