I have never had a therapy session so I could be a little off in my comparison but in my job search experience over the last few years, it has felt more like therapy. If you make it pass the gated phone interview and are invited to a in-person interview and this is where the magic happens. Your interviewer will take you back to where your career started and bring you up to the present time. As you begin to describe your responsibilities, you take a trip down memory lane but something unexpected always seems to happen.
As the interview progresses, a question will be asked that requires some deep thought. You begin to run through your experiences in your head and then start to answer the question and then it happens! You have an Oprah Ah-Ha moment. You realize that your whole life changed based on one occurrence in your childhood or one interaction with a co-worker. Or you realize that the reason you act the way you do is because your first boss or a school mate treated you a certain way. Or you realize that your parents raised you to think a certain way and that is why you grew up to be good or bad at something. Each interview opportunity causes a person to have a different story come to life for them.
One moment you are talking out loud about something related to the job and all the sudden you have a moment of clarity about something in your life. It is usually something so simple that you can't believe this is the first time you have ever made the connection. When the interview is over you are thankful for the opportunity to be considered for a job but that isn't the only thing you got out of it. You are secretly grateful because you just had a break-through moment in your life that would not have surfaced any other way.
So the lesson here... the next time you feel like something isn't right in your life maybe it is time to start looking for a new job. You will get the answers you need during one of your interviews. It is a lot cheaper than therapy. When the interview process is over they could end up paying you or you may never have to see them again. Either way, you will feel a little more complete. It is a win-win.
