Job seeking can be a highly anxiety-inducing activity at the best of times, but doing so during the highly uncertain times presented by the Covid pandemic makes this doubly so.  New research from the University of Arizona Eller College of Management highlights how this can have both positive and negative outcomes.

“We wanted to understand if there are certain ways that anxiety might actually be helpful for them,” the researchers explain. “Are there certain ways they are actually able to channel that anxiety to create a more productive job search process?”

The researchers gathered survey data from students in their final semester during a six-week-long job search during the fall of 2020.  They were particularly looking to uncover two specific types of thought processes that are linked to anxiety:

• Affection-focused rumination, in which we have recurring negative thoughts about the prospect of looking for work
• Problem-solving pondering, in which we focus on how to improve our job search.

“Anxiety is a double-edged sword,” the researchers say. “It can help you focus in on your goals and channel your effort effectively, but it can also undermine you.”

Anxious times

The results show that when job seekers respond to any anxiety they’re feeling with a problem-solving mentality, they’re far more likely to exert effort in a more productive way.  What’s more, these people were more likely to persevere in their search for their ideal job and one that met their expectations and values.  This, in turn, meant that they were more likely to get interviews and ultimately job offers.

When we fall into more affect-focused rumination, however, our job search is negatively affected, as we tend to feel scared, upset, nervous, or distressed.  This results in a sub-standard job search that we’re more likely to abandon at an early stage.

“One thing that we were concerned about for our job seekers was: Do we have students who are abandoning their goals and aspirations because of COVID-19 and because the labor markets are constrained?” the researchers say. “We found that students, as long as they were operating through this really productive pathway, were still exerting effort toward their dream jobs.”

An uncertain future

The study also found that our views on the severity of the pandemic and its impact on the job market can also play a major role in fueling our anxiety.

The researchers asked participants whether they believed what the authorities were telling them about the pandemic or whether they were hiding the truth from them.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, when people were more prone to conspiracy-like thinking, they were also more likely to be anxious and engage in affect-focused thinking in response during their job search.  The authors suggest this could be because they feel less in control of their lives and of their job search, and therefore have lower expectations for it.

“One clear takeaway is to encourage job seekers to really focus on why they are feeling anxious about their job search and what they can do to channel that positively,” the researchers conclude. “So, rather than shutting down and falling into the panic and worry, you can take that cue and say, ‘OK, something is off. I’m not making the progress I want. What can I do to reevaluate and re-craft my search in a positive way?’”