The Magical Job Hunt

Guest post by Janina Renée
Author of By Candlelight: Rites for Celebration, Blessing & Prayer

Job hunting can be a grueling and discouraging process, but we can turn it into more of a game and a quest by approaching it with a magical mindset.

For example, job hunting is something of a "numbers game." Many of us have to send out hundreds of cover letters, resumés, and applications, and then go to numerous interviews before we get an offer. When we are rejected, it is not necessarily that we are unqualified, have made a bad impression, or are being discriminated against, it is just that there are such huge numbers of qualified applicants for the jobs available. However, a numbers game can be turned into a blessing game. Every time you sign another cover letter (and you should generally always include a cover letter because it "sells" your application or resumé), you can say, "As I send this out, I extend my blessings. Abundant blessings to one and all." When you go in person to put in an application or show up for an interview, you can pause, squeeze the door handle, and think, "Abundant blessings!"

By getting around, you are opening more channels for the inflow of your own luck. However, do all of these things without expecting anything in return. Here, you measure your job hunting success not by how quickly you get hired by an ideal employer, but by how many blessings you are able to spread around.

Occasionally you may encounter an employer where you observe or suspect unfair hiring practices or exploitative conditions. Even though such employers might rightly deserve a curse instead of a blessing, bless them anyway, perhaps by saying something like, "AcmeCo and Mr. X., chief of AcmeCo, are magically blessed; may they now do right by others, and be a blessing to our community." (This does not mean you can't report them to the appropriate authorities, if their practices are overt enough to provide proof of wrong-doing.)

You can keep count of all the companies you've blessed by keeping a log of the letters you've sent out and visits you've made. To better visualize your achievement, you could create a material record by setting out an abacus, or stringing beads on a necklace or garland (interviews get bigger beads), forming a chain of paper clips, or coming up with some other visual counting device. You could also mark the places that you've applied to on a map, so that you can see how you have extended your magical presence as a bestower of blessings in your community. As you contemplate your map or list of jobs applied for, (or your garland, paper clip chain, or whatever), don't be pessimistic and say, "50 companies have turned me down!" Rather, say, "Wow, I've contacted (and blessed) 50 companies! I wonder if I can contact 50 more?" Indeed, you can take the view that the job hunt is just a ruse, an excuse to get out and around, to get to know more places than are normally accessible to the public.

There is a magical psychology behind this. When we are desperate to get work, we put out subtle signals, and the people in charge of hiring pick up on them and judge us unfavorably. Indeed, one study showed that human resources people routinely made job offers to actors who were secretly sent in as part of an experiment, rather than the real job seekers. Because the actors weren't worried about getting hired, they didn't convey a sense of anxiety--unlike the people who actually needed the job. Thus, if we can make the job hunt more playful, the desperation vibes are diminished. Of course, once you do get a good job offer, whether sooner or later, you can set the game aside and graciously take the job, thanking your Higher Powers or the Living Universe.

Here are some additional suggestions for job hunting with a magical mindset:

After each interview, consider it a blessing if you can discover at least one way to improve your self presentation, skills, or answers to interview questions. 

Maintain a sense of openness, without an expectation that you have to have a particular job or a particular kind of job. This way you make it easier for your Higher Powers to lead you to some other interesting possibilities.

It has been said that "the best way to get a job is to get a job." It is an unfortunate fact that unemployed people are often perceived as losers. However, if you are able to get any kind of a job at all, whether that be a part time, temporary, lower paid, or less prestigious position, you will be perceived as more desirable, and will therefore be in a position to find a better job. The situation can be compared to the common phenomenon of persons who have a hard time finding dates, but once they do get into a steady relationship, they suddenly start attracting all kinds of interest from the opposite sex.

Volunteer work magically primes the pump, because it affirms that you are working. It can also get you out into the wider world, help you make contacts, and build references.

From an astrological viewpoint, the more companies you contact and the more people with whom you interview, the greater the chance that you'll hook up with some whose planets are in a friendly, fortunate aspect to your own, (as all of us have many planets in different positions in our horoscopes). Again, it's a numbers game.