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If you spend the wee morning hours gazing at help wanted ads instead of catching up on beauty rest, you might be a job search addict. If you experience persistent dissatisfaction with each new job or boss that comes your way, you might be a job search addict. If you go after jobs for which you are greatly underqualified, you might be a job search addict. Audio engineer Eric Smith understands this phenomenon first-hand. After years of career discontent and job-hopping, Smith finally faced the truth. He was a bona fide job search addict. It started with a quick check of job listings web sites about once a week, and then progressed into multiple times daily. “The Internet made it so easy to consistently check and refresh,” Smith explained. “I work in media, and with some sites, postings can pop up at any time. Knowing this, I began to search regularly, just in case. After a few months and a growing defeatist attitude, I realized that I was hurting myself by constantly job hunting.” Frequent job changes are not necessarily unusual – or even bad, according to Penelope Trunk, author of Brazen Careerist: The New Rules For Success. In fact, the average worker age 35 or younger stays at a job only 18 months. However, the job search becomes harmful when, as in Smith’s case, it changes from mere ladder-climbing to an all-consuming obsession that interferes with job performance. The key with each new job is to accomplish something. “The time when job-hopping is bad is when you keep going to companies and getting nothing done,” Trunk says. “You can’t have a resume full of places where you went and got nothing done.” It can be very difficult to be productive and successful in a job when your focus is entirely misplaced. If you’re tired and listless from repeated late-night job searches, your lack of enthusiasm will eventually become apparent at work. It’s what ultimately served as Smith’s wake-up call – his job performance was suffering. “I realized after a few months that I was making myself nuts,” he said. “Needlessly stressing over something I could control was starting to make me a really bad employee. Rather than focusing on making my work or my working relationships better and keeping my eyes and ears open, I was just focused on what it would take to get a new job.” Though it may be challenging initially, you can learn to love the job you’re in. Find the positive in your work – maybe your job involves helping others, maybe you’re paid at the top of your field, or perhaps you’re fortunate enough to work with your best friend. Whatever the positive aspects of your job might be, find them and focus on them. Your job will begin to seem more enjoyable and, though you may still be applying for other positions, you will probably obsess over them a lot less. “My personal belief became that the harder I pushed, the further I pushed opportunities away,” Smith said. “Rather than thinking too much about a position, I just applied and forgot about it. It was a much more passive approach. I began to feel that if I approached things with a better attitude and focused on doing better work, good things would eventually happen.” There are certainly situations where hatred of a job seems merited, like those involving dull work or an overbearing supervisor. However, the power to be happy is generally within the employee’s control, according to Trunk. “A lot of people think a job will make them happy,” she explains. “A job doesn’t make you happy; your personal life makes you happy. So stop thinking that and take care of it outside of work.” If the boss seems unreasonable, try to talk it out and imagine a role reversal, Trunk advised. After all, the boss isn’t always to blame; it could be that the employee is simply difficult to please. Learning to “manage the boss” is a skill well worth learning, with big future rewards potential in the form of solid references and career advancement. “You can control how your boss interacts with you. Figure out what your boss needs and what’s important to your boss. Make sure you’re doing it, and make sure you’re getting what you need from your boss,” Trunk advices. “If you’re having trouble with your boss now, you’re probably going to continue to have trouble with bosses at other jobs in the future, so you might as well stay and figure out how to manage your boss.” Entry-level workers are especially at risk of feeling dissatisfied with their job. The best strategy is to use research and internships to identify a rewarding career, and then take the hit and do entry-level grunt work no one else wants to do. When done well, entry-level work can quickly lead to bigger and better things. A reasonable amount of job searching is natural at this stage, but don’t forget to enjoy the ride and make each step count.

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