Gratitude is riches, complaint is poverty

Happy Thursday 📰

If you know me well, you know I'm a big believer in the gratitude jar. I've kept one for more than a decade and I know it's helped change the way I think (and see things) for the better.

I get the current job market is brutal. As a Gen X-er who had been looking for a job for more than 2.5 years, there were definitely times that I doubted I would ever find anything. But I kept freelancing, kept thoughtfully applying to jobs (not mass-applying), and kept writing down one thing each night before I went to bed that I was thankful for (or one good thing that happened that day). And finally, I found a job. Did my gratitude jar make a job appear? Of course not, but it did help me keep a positive mindset even in the face of adversity.

I've seen quite a few job seekers on LinkedIn ranting about not being able to find a job. Ranting about companies that don't know what they're looking for. Ranting about interviewers who don't know what they're doing. Are these job seekers entitled to their opinions? Absolutely. Are they entitled to rant on LinkedIn? Again, absolutely. But is it a smart move to do so, knowing you're trying to convince someone to interview you? Probably not.

Like it or not, recruiters and hiring managers are looking people up on LinkedIn and if your posts and comments are a barrage of complaints, you have a pretty good chance of being moved to the "no" pile no matter how impressive your resume is.

I'm not telling anyone to not post or comment, you're free to do what you want. But I am reminding you that your posts and comments may have unintended consequences.

It's a brutal job market right now. Why give recruiters and hiring managers a reason to write you off before they even meet you?

Gratitude is riches.
Complaint is poverty.
The choice is yours.
Choose wisely.

#DailyGratitude #GratitudeJar #JobHuntingChronicles

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