WomenCo.

Hi Everyone,

I am new to WomenCo. and I am already loving what I see. I love that this is an environment for women to share their joys and pain, but always a place to receive encouragement and support. With that said, I wanted to pose a question to all of the women out here who have had to go through the job search.

I will start by giving my story. I decided about 3 months before graduation from law school that I did not want to take the bar. I had not really enjoyed my experience and I had been pretty jaded about the profession since my first summer working at a law firm. So I stuck with my plan and did not take the bar, but instead allowed myself to get the rest and relaxation that I felt I deserved for accomplishing something this big, and told myself that I would begin my job search when I finally felt ready.

Well, I am ready to start the search, but I am having serious problems with anxiety. Some days I feel like I am on top of the world and can do anything, but other days, I am too nervous to even look up job descriptions. My anxiety is causing me to have self-defeating thoughts before even making a real active effort to find a job. I am so scared that I will not be qualified for any job I apply for, that I will not do well on interviews, or worse, that no one will even want to give my resume and cover letter a second thought. It is so bad that actually paralyzes my job search, as I have a hard time updating my resume and cover letter, and have yet to even apply to any positions (I have been trying to start since the beginning of August). I feel so scatterbrained and unable to concentrate when it comes to the job search.

So the question that I pose to you ladies is have any of you felt this kind of anxiety and if so, how did you get past this? Did you seek professional help? Do you have any reccommendations on people you think I should speak to or things I should do?

Thanks in advance ladies! And sorry for the long post!

Nelly