It is only human to share one’s current hardships of life with others to receive comfort and support. While this is something your friends are for, always keep it to yourself in the context of your job hunt.
Regardless of how bad your current personal situation may be, never present yourself as someone in trouble! Presenting yourself to potential employers as needy immediately lowers your social status and professional attractiveness, decreases the chance of getting help from the right people, and increases the risks of being taken advantage of by the wrong ones.
Why it is detrimental
If you hint that you are in trouble, your professional attractiveness and with it your chances to get the job are likely to plummet. While hiring managers and recruiters will feel sorry for you from a personal perspective, they will fear that you are not telling them the truth about your competencies and personal situation because you are under immense pressure, and that your hidden issues will cause significant problems later if they employ you anyway.
Particular pitfalls to avoid
In such a situation, there is an increased risk that harmful remarks slip out, which means you must be particularly careful to prevent that.
Here are a few examples of what to avoid:
- Hinting that you are short of money.
- Hinting that your job hunt has become desperate.
- Hinting that you believe there is “something wrong” with you (e.g. regarding your age, gender, race, culture, religion, personality, health, skills, work experience, etc.).
- Expressing hopes that some employer will finally feel pity for you and offer you a job because of it.
- Hinting that you will accept any salary / wage.
- Hinting that you are willing to do something immoral or even illegal to get a particular job.
- Becoming overly excited at vague hints that you may get a particular job.
When to shift gears
All of the above assumes that you are sure to be the right choice for the open position because you will excel in it despite your current difficulties.
However, if this is not the case and you have serious doubts about your suitability, you must change gears completely! Getting a job you will likely lose again quickly will only increase your problems. If it is necessary to incorporate a solution to your problems into the work arrangement with a new employer, you need to openly address that right from the beginning.
This is a very special situation and requires a completely different approach to your job search. Feel free to contact me if you would like my help with that.