Job Hunting is a Lot like Dating

"Searching for a new job is a lot like dating". Don't believe me? Read on...

The most recent adventure in my life was my decision to move from my comfortable job down south to the state where I grew up in New England to search for a new more challenging job. Although I am still going through the motions of trying to find a job that is perfect for me (i.e. challenging, what I want to do, and where I can learn) I found it interesting going through the different processes and the analyzing the initial contacts between the person searching for a job and the recruiter.

What I have been noticing are the similarities between searching for a job and dating. This may sound funny to some but for those that don't believe me I present these points: When we are single, for most, we are searching for "the one", a person that will engage us and with whom we are compatible with. We are really picky at first, sifting through many potential candidates until we get to a point where we will just take anything we can get. Now in a new job search we are the same way. We will sift through countless potential employers to find the one that pays the most, or that is closest to our home or the job that will keep us the most engaged in our work, until we have wasted too much time brushing off the jobs we feel "aren't good enough" for us and we are desperate for a job at all.

The most convincing point I can make comes in the second stages of job hunting, where we have interviews. I am a person that loves to people watch, read body language etc, and what I've noticed is that interviews are a lot like the first date. Once we set up the interview we freak out about what we should wear, "should I wear something really formal? I don't want to look like a tight-wad though." "I'll wear something business casual, but I don't want to come off too casual because they might think I don't care." Then once we figure out what to wear we constantly run through potential questions in our minds about what they could ask and what our answers are going to be.

Once we get to the interview we try to read their body language and wonder if the employer is in to us our not, if we should loosen up and joke around some more, it's the same exact thing with dating. Then the interview is over and we're driving home and we begin to replay the whole interview / conversation in our minds, what we could have said, what questions we should have asked, "did they like me? Did I look like an ass?" The worst part comes next, the waiting. Sitting at home (assuming you don't have any more dates / interviews) wondering when and if they will call, will they email us? Is it appropriate to email them right away or should we wait a few days?

Although I definitely don't encourage anyone to treat interviews like dates or job-hunting like searching for a partner, I thought it might be interesting to bring to light some of the similarities between the two to lighten up the tough process that is searching of the right job.