The Job Hunt From Hell

It’s time for some honesty.

For those of us who have had to job hunt, we know that it just plain sucks. There’s really no way around it. Even if you have connections to certain companies, we are now in a competitive market and that only get’s your resume reviewed. I thought reality struck when I graduated from college, and it might have, but reality struck even harder once I became ill.

When I first became sick, I had just switched from my in between job, the 4:30 a.m. shift at the Grand Central Station Starbucks, to what I thought was my dream position in social media marketing. While that turned out to be untrue as a whole, that dream crashed and burned when I got sick and was let go. I was too busy feeling like death in bed for eight and a half months to find out if I could take any action, but I was able to get disability (another post on that soon). Anyway, fast-forward to less than three months ago, I got myself to a point where I needed to/was ready to start applying for jobs. Applying for jobs when you’re disabled is an entirely different hell from applying when you’re healthy. Let’s go over a few of the largest issues.

1. Your Pain: Job-hunting is painful enough, but when you’re in physical pain it’s 10 times more painful, especially if you have a chronic headache or migraine illness. Not to mention, staring at a bright screen for hours when you’re sensitive to light and can’t focus…yeah.
2. Your emotions: The anger, depression, and anxiety can be extremely overwhelming. It’s really hard to feel useful, intelligent, and adequate from my bed, which is where I’ve spent a tremendous amount of time trying to heal over the past year and a half. It’s a bit tough to have hope when you’re life turns a total 180. When going into a job hunt, you have to be optimistic and positive, but it’s just not easy for people like us.
3. Your dreams: When you’re a child and someone asks you what you want to be when you grow up and you say the president of the United States, you’re not stressing out about that dream actually coming true because you’re five-years-old. Post college, you’re world comes crashing down. It’s not because you aren’t competent, but because you have an illness that may be holding you back either physically, mentally, or both.
4. Disability: Whether or not you have short-term or long term disability through the government, or no disability; you’re disabled. There are companies who openly hire disabled people and those who don’t. Try to find the most supportive companies you can. Here’s a list.
5. The big “D”: Everyone loves those last few identity questions at the end of applications. You know, the ones where the company claims they won’t pin them against you because of the American Disability Act, etc.? Well, corporations are dirty and there are plenty of loopholes. Each time I get to this question, I’m unsure of what to do. If I leave it be and don’t identify as disabled or not, does that raise a red flag for a company? Are 10 red flags raised if I answer honestly? Does it even help if I lie? I don’t think that anyone knows 100% one-way or the other and as a result, we are tormented.
6. Telecommuting: Getting to socialize when you have chronic pain can be tough, especially since it’s hard to be completely accountable. Unfortunately, one of the best ways to work when you have an illness is to cut down on people time even more by telecommuting. Telecommuting allows many the ability to work from home, so they can be in pain privately and have flexible hours. Sadly, these types of positions can often be boring and hard to come by. There is FlexJobs, which is a very legit job board focusing on telecommuting and flexible positions, but it’s not an instant fix.
7. Interviews: Pushing through the pain for interview’s is hard. Even if we push aside the costs of travel if your pain keeps you from taking public transportation, much like mine, there are several other factors to consider. Do you have money for new clothes? If it’s been long enough, you may need to shop for an outfit to make you look your best. Tip* If you can, try to have a virtual interview to take the pressure off! Still, you might not have your head on straight enough to answer the random hard-pressed questions.
8. The search: If you can’t tell by now, the search is pretty narrow as is.
9. The Job: I won’t talk much about keeping the job today, as I’m still figuring that out, but it’s not hard to obsess over the concept of keeping the job before you even have one and that can certainly set you back emotionally (see #2).
10. The Boss/Staff: Again, once you have the job, but it’s definitely a concern. Do you tell your boss and fellow staff members about your condition or keep it secret until you absolutely have to? Will they freak out and fire you or alienate you? Feeling that spiral of anxiety? I know how you feel.

Those of you who are in the same boat might be feeling less alone, but just as anxious, if not more. The truth is, having a job with a disability is possible because I just landed one less than a month ago. It also doesn’t mean that getting the job is easy, with the right support and resources, it will all be figured out in time.