For a shy job seeker, the job search process can be tedious especially during interviews. Conditions like social anxiety or inferiority complex can show and stall your hiring chances. Though it may be hard, overcoming shyness and building self-confidence is possible when you’re well-informed and backed up with the right mindset. Here’s what you need to know to help you beat this job search problem,
What is Inferiority Complex?
Contrary to what most people claim, famous psychologist Alfred Adler said being inferior is often considered as a healthy motivation. Sean Cooper of shynesssocialanxiety.com expounds the aforementioned statement. He states that receiving criticism and seeing someone do better than you can boost your confidence, hence making you more capable and driven. However, inferiority becomes unhealthy when the feeling of being inferior intensifies.
Adler calls it inferiority complex instead of motivation—the feeling of being inferior paralyzes you. Experts often link it with real or make-believe flaw in physical appearance, personality, status in life, or educational attainment.
What Are the Causes and Symptoms?
Simple-remedies.com states that in extreme cases, inferiority complex can cause major conflicts to one’s mindset and lead to social anxiety. Mostly, it can arise from the following factors.
- Parent’s attitude and the environment where the child grows
- Physical disabilities can also make a person feel inferior to others
- Limitation of mental or intellectual capacity
- Social deprivation and general drawback
- Social discrimination and inequality between individuals on basis of any measures of diversity
Inferiority complex can manifest in the form of certain symptoms. They tend to:
- Disconnect and detach from a social setting
- Downgrade others
- Blame others and look for their flaws
- Shy away from social gatherings and competition
- Be extremely sensitive
- Have low self-esteem and self-confidence
How to Conquer Inferiority Complex
While it may be impossible to conquer this mental condition overnight, you can start the process by heeding these tips from psychologenie.com.
1. Positive thinking
Give yourself a daily dose of positivity by reading good, self-help books and surrounding yourself with positive people. Highlighting the positive parts and being optimistic in every situation is also crucial and can slowly bring about a difference.
2. Discerning the good from the bad
Learn to assess your good and bad qualities. Conduct a self-evaluation and enlist these qualities. Keep going back to the good ones so you can remind yourself that you’re not as bad as you think.
3. Acceptance
Learning how to accept yourself and the situation you’re into marks the beginning of change and can slowly help solve the problem. Accept that each one of us is unique. It can bring about a helpful change.
4. Avoidance
Avoid negative-minded and toxic people or those that constantly put you down. Do this until you have regained self-confidence and are strong enough to deal with such people.
Job Search Tips for an Introverted Job Seeker
Backed by years of experience, hiring managers can feel it when a job seeker is feeling inferior towards their job competitors or even being awkward during panel interviews. If you’re an introvert or shy job seeker, here are some job interview tips from themuse.com to help you get this dilemma.
1. Plan your schedule for the day.
For introverts, interacting with others consumes energy. So it’s wise to arrange your schedule so that you’ll have lots of “solo” time before and after the interview. This ensures you have plenty of energy to last the whole day.
2. Engage for some chitchat.
Even if you hate chitchats, you can’t avoid having small talks during interviews. Prepare yourself by having a question and answer session beforehand with a friend or family member.
3. Focus on leaving a good first and last impression.
Nail the beginning and end of the interview for these impressions play a vital role in your overall impression as a job seeker. If you want recruiters to recall you as confident and friendly, practice and try to leave that impact on them.
4. Mention that you’re an introvert.
Tons of people are introverts so there’s no point in hiding the fact that you are one of them. Instead of denying, it’s best to highlight the good aspects of being an introvert.
Inferiority complex can be a tough job search problem to overcome. But with the right mindset and by heeding these tips, you can start early and sooner or later conquer it.
For more expert career advice and resume writing services that can help boost your hiring chances, visit www.resumevalley.com.
Sources: simple-remedies.com | peopleskillsdecoded.com | shynesssocialanxiety.com | psychologenie.com | themuse.com
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