How to Manage Your Mental Health When Applying for Football Jobs
Even if you are an experienced football professional, it can be difficult to know how to apply for the right role. It’s easy for your mental health to suffer if your CV is unsuccessful or you are waiting to hear back from recruiters.
Here are our top tips to help you manage your mental health while job-hunting in football.
1. Be Realistic
The most important point is Don’t Panic if you have applied for a few roles but not yet heard back.
After applying for a job, it can take up to six weeks before a recruiter responds. Some roles may require even longer applications.
This is the most important lesson. It’s not a good idea to take things personally. It can be difficult to keep your emotions under control when you are looking for work.
Unfortunately, every company won’t respond to your CV immediately if they respond at all. Most football job adverts state that you will only be contacted if you are invited for an interview.
It’s a worthwhile step to remember that this process may take longer than you expected.
It is also important to only apply for jobs you have a realistic chance of getting. There is little point in applying for roles if you are not in the right catchment area, have the required qualifications or have the required experience.
When applying for roles without fitting the criteria set out by the club you are damaging your reputation for future roles and putting more pressure on yourself applying for a role you have very little chance of getting an interview for.
2. Be proactive
You don’t have to be patient to be proactive. In the age of computers and social media, it has never been easier to connect with people.
Linkedin is a great resource for sharing your work experience and connecting with people in every football role. Make sure your profile is up to date and you are following the right people for the job you are looking for.
Although you might not be successful following your interview, that doesn’t mean you can’t get valuable feedback from them to help you in your application.
We recommend that you contact a recruiter within a few weeks of your interview. This will help to put your mind at ease. Send a short email or a quick message to LinkedIn asking for feedback.
Even if you are unsuccessful, you can learn from your mistakes and move on to the next opportunity. It’s possible to find out why they don’t believe you are right for the job – this could prove invaluable in the future.
82% of recruiters agree that this reflects well on candidates when they get back in touch with them, so taking initiative might help you stand out.
3. Take Some Unpaid Work
Although this is not your end game it might be more useful than you think.
Volunteering can be a way to build professional skills and try out leadership opportunities, which is especially relevant for a young coach or scout.
It also looks good on your CV as it stops there being any gaps and shows potential employers that you are not sitting back and waiting for an opportunity to come to you.
More importantly, it helps you keep active and involved in the game.
4. Don’t give up
When it comes to finding work, there is a lot of doom. Particularly in football, it is a very competitive market.
It can be easy to give up when there are so many people out there looking for work and even more competition.
The key is to keep learning and keep applying.
Former Manchester United and Middlesbrough midfielder Jonathan Greening recently said that he was ignored for ’50 or 60′ manager jobs before being given the opportunity and then guiding Scarborough to promotion.
It takes time to search for work. Even when you are at your lowest, remember that every job application is an opportunity to learn. It doesn’t matter if you need to know which jobs are best suited for your skills or if you can make small adjustments in your approach based upon feedback from friends or companies.
Take each day as it comes and know that things will improve. You can always make things better.
5. Ask for help
Looking for work can be incredibly lonely.
Regardless of how low you feel, you are not the only one. Many people have been in similar situations, including your family and friends.
There are many organisations that can assist you.
Don’t be afraid of talking to people you don’t know. Many people find it hard to talk about unemployment because of the stigma that still surrounds it.
It’s possible to get great feedback by asking someone to review your CV. Even if you’re just trying to get rid of your worries.
Jobs4football offer a career mentoring package to help raise your profile, offer CV advice.