Transurfing this Job Market · High Vibe Tribe

Transurfing this Job Market

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the mindset we bring into a job search, and I realized something that genuinely shifted the way I’m approaching mine. There is a huge difference between looking for a job from desperation and looking for your next role from the assumption that your career is still intact. After all, "we can only have that which we already have," so how can we have a job when we are clearly searching?

Those two states can produce the exact same outward behavior... Imagine yourself as two different people in both states - having the job and searching for a job.

Both people might be on LinkedIn. Both might update their CV, send applications, and interview.

But internally, they can be having completely different experiences.

One person is thinking:

I don’t have a job. I need something immediately. Somebody please choose me. I should apply to everything because I’m running out of time.

The other is thinking:

I’m figuring out where I’m going next. Let’s see what’s available. That one isn’t right for me. That one looks interesting. I’ll put myself forward for that.

Same Apply button. Completely different psychological posture.

Losing a job doesn’t mean you lost your career. This was probably the biggest realization for me. If you’ve spent years building experience, learning skills, solving problems, managing projects, working with teams, building expertise, or developing your profession, all of that did not suddenly disappear because one employment relationship ended. You still have a career. You’re simply between employers.

Those are not the same thing.

Instead of telling yourself:

“I need to become employed again so I can be a professional person again,” what if the thought became:

“My career is already moving. I’m deciding what comes next.”

Or:

“I know I’m going back to work. Right now I’m participating in how that happens.”

That feels very different from trying to force yourself to believe something your brain knows isn’t literally true. Applying for jobs is not evidence that something is missing...

I’ve also been thinking about this through the lens of manifestation and the whole idea of “living as if.” That language can accidentally create another kind of anxiety. Like - If I apply for a job, am I admitting I don’t have one? If I check LinkedIn, am I acting from lack? Should I somehow pretend I’m already employed? I don’t think so.

Planning does not automatically mean lack. Someone planning a wedding doesn’t think the wedding must not exist because they’re still choosing flowers.

Someone preparing to move can still look at apartments. Someone building a business can still look for clients. Action can be part of the unfolding rather than evidence that nothing is happening.

The meaning you attach to the job search changes the way you experience it. Maybe we should stop calling it “job searching”...? Maybe we should call it job selecting? Because that is what we’re doing, too.

We’re looking through possibilities and saying:

No.

Wrong location.

Salary is too low.

That culture doesn’t sound right.

Interesting.

That’s closer.

Yes. I’d like to talk to them.

That small shift reminds me that an employer is not the only person making a decision.

I am also deciding.

The goal is not... “Please choose me.” It is... “Let’s find out whether we choose each other.”

That doesn’t mean becoming arrogant or refusing to compromise. Sometimes life requires flexibility.

But there is a difference between flexibility and self-abandonment. There is a difference between being open-minded and believing you have to accept anything because you’re scared nothing else will come.

Structure the search around what you can actually control.

Something else I’m trying to do is stop measuring the day entirely by external results. So much of hiring is outside our control. You cannot control whether a recruiter replies today, whether a hiring manager chooses someone internally, whether a company suddenly freezes the position, how many applicants a role receives, how quickly the interview process moves, or what the economy does this month.

But you can control whether you found worthwhile opportunities...

You can control whether you submitted a strong application.

You can contact someone.

You can improve a skill.

You can work on a portfolio.

You can learn something about your industry.

You can prepare for interviews.

You can decide what you are and aren’t willing to accept.

And then, you can decide when to stop for the day.

Your entire nervous system does not have to remain on duty until someone hires you. The job search does not get to determine your worth.

Try this on for size:

I am professionally valuable even while I am between jobs.

My experience still exists.

My career still exists.

There is useful work for me to do.

I am looking for the next place where I can do it.

And then you apply.

An application doesn't need to rescue you. A company doesn't get to decide whether you have value as a human being. Applying is one of many ways you participate in the co-creative process.

That distinction has been helping me tremendously.

So, instead of “Who will finally give me a chance?” Maybe it can become “Where am I going next?”

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Transurfing this Job Market