That’s honestly the weirdest part.
At first I was stressed mostly about money. But after months of applications, rejection emails, ghosting, and staring at LinkedIn for hours every day, I feel like I’ve slowly become a different person mentally.
I avoid people more now because I’m tired of answering “any job updates?” every week. I overthink every purchase because I feel guilty spending money. Even relaxing feels wrong because there’s always this voice saying I should be applying somewhere.
What really messes with me is how job searching becomes your entire identity after awhile. You wake up checking emails, rewrite resumes again, scroll listings for hours, then end the day feeling like you accomplished nothing.
Recently I started changing my routine a little because the constant rejection cycle was genuinely wrecking my motivation.
Did anyone else notice job searching affecting their confidence and personality way more than expected?