How to Find a Good Job For Yourself When You Have Anxiety

How to Find a Good Job For Yourself When You Have AnxietyFinding the right career path for yourself is a daunting process under any circumstances. If you suffer from anxiety or similar challenges in your everyday life, career choices can seem downright overwhelming sometimes. Everyone faces situational anxiety occasionally, but clinical anxiety (disorders that include social anxiety, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and phobias) has the fhigkeit make professional life mora difficult. googletag.cmd.push(function() googletag.display(div-gpt-ad-1467144145037-0) ) The good news is that your career is something you can take control of, regardless of a diagnosisand sometimes making the right decision comes down to being flexible, and honest about what works best for yourself.That means that not every career is created equal. If youre prone to anxiety, you likely dont want to add too many potential stress triggers. After all, if your job is makin g you miserable day in and day out, thats not a healthy professional arc for anyone. The key to balancing your career with your anxiety (whether its general or social) is finding that sweet spot of doing something that youre good at doing, and that makes you feel comfortable.Some tips for juggling your anxiety and your professional life.Be realistic about your strengths and limitations. For example, if you have social anxiety, a job working with directly with the public could make you totally miserable for 40 hours a week. Knowing up front what triggers or aggravates your particular brand of anxiety can help you figure out potential danger zones at work, and make choices accordingly.Be flexible. Lets say you always thought you wanted to be an astronaut, but when you get further along the path, you realize that the stresses and claustrophobia of being in a spacecraft are giving you panic attacks and making you dread whatever comes next. Just because you always thought you should be a n astronaut, or youve already gone through training, doesnt mean you have to stay on that exact path. Be open to similar jobs that might not be exactly what you envision doing, but also dont have the same obligations and stresses. NASA also needs people working in logistics, planning, math, all sorts of other departments. Dont get locked into a specific idea of what you should be doing.Make your workday work for you. Dont be afraid to look for accommodations that can be made to minimize anxiety-inducing factors. If constant multitasking and getting pinged all day with email requests spikes your anxiety, try to set up your day in blocks that can be set aside for specific tasks. Find ways to help curve the overwhelm before it happens.Be honest, but not TOO forthcoming. If you have an anxiety disorder, its not a good idea to put this in your cover letter or resume, or mention it in an interview. Its actually illegal for potential employers to ask you about a disability or medical condi tion, so you dont want to open that can of worms yourself. Instead, focus on the positive the skills and processes youve developed to handle previous jobs, or ways of doing things that have worked best for you in your professional life. For example, if youre asked about how you handle your daily workload, you dont have to explain that you prefer emails over phone calls or stand-up meetings because you have social anxiety. You can just note that youve found it to be a more efficient and productive option in managing your day-to-day. Focus on the coping mechanisms that make you a better employee all around, not just a better employee with anxiety issues.Look for unorthodox or more flexible work arrangements. If you have severe social anxiety or OCD that makes going in public difficult, think about jobs that let you telecommute or work directly from home, or may be otherwise flexible about the more traditional 9 to 5 in the office template.Remember that youre an individual, with import ant strengths and skills. Everyone has Life Stuff that can interfere with everyday work life. Maybe yours just happens to be an anxiety disorder. Whatever your Life Stuff is, never forget that its just part of you, and that you bring plenty of skills and qualifications to the table that are not defined by your Life Stuff. Embracing it as part of who you are can help you develop a more fulfilling career for yourself.So if you do have anxiety, what are some jobs and fields that might work well with your anxiety, rather than against it?Medical Laboratory TechnologistHealthcare careers are absolutely booming right now, especially ones that verstndigung im strafverfahren in cutting-edge technology. Medical lab technologists collect samples from patients (blood, other body fluids, tissue, and other body substances) to help make a diagnosis or determine treatment. This job typically requires a bachelors degree in the sciences, and may require additional licensing or certification, dependin g on the state. The zentralwert salary for medical laboratory technologists is $50,550, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.Why is it good for anxiety? If you suffer from social anxiety and do better in an environment with limited interaction with others, a lab can be an ideal setting. Working in healthcare can also help provide concrete goals that let you concentrate on the patient or test at hand, and tune out other anxieties.Veterinary TechnicianVeterinary technicians (or vet techs) provide day-to-day medical care for animal patients, working with veterinarians to diagnose and treat conditions and injuries in animals. To become a veterinary technician, youll need at least an associates degree in the field, and likely state licensing/certification as well. The zentralwert salary for veterinary technicians is $31,800, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.Why is it good for anxiety? If the idea of working with humans stresses you out, animals can be a good alternative. Youll always have human coworkers (unless youre Dr. Doolittle), but being able to focus on the animals and their care may help alleviate some stress and anxiety for you.Elementary School TeacherElementary school teachers are on the front lines of educating our youth. These teachers are typically responsible for teaching general topics to kids (English/reading, math, science, and social studies), or may specialize in particular subjects or disciplines (physical education, art, music, school library, etc.). Teachers have bachelors degrees in education, and often a masters as well (though many teachers complete their masters degree after they start teaching). The median salary for elementary school teachers is $54,550, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.Why is it good for anxiety? To some, the idea of standing in front of a classroom full of expectant young faces, ready to learn, can be terrifying. But hear me outworking with kids may be less intimidating than working with adults, and h aving the structured goals of curriculum and classroom schedules can help with anxieties.Fitness InstructorFitness instructors work with classes or individuals to develop and maintain physical fitness. They can be trainers who work one-on-one with clients, or teachers who lead classes at gyms, spas, fitness centers, etc. There is no specific education requirement to become a fitness instructor or trainer, but many states do require that instructors and trainers become licensed or certified in the areas they want to teach. . The median salary for fitness instructors is $31,160, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.Why is it good for anxiety? Many people find that working out, eating right, and performing advanced self-care helps with anxiety. If that works well for you personally, why not have it work for you professionally too? A career as a fitness instructor can help you channel your personal challenges and anxieties into helping others achieve results as well. This also has th e benefit of being a very flexible job, letting you set up class schedules and appointments based on what works for you (full-time or part-time), and specializing in particular area of fitness expertise. If Extreme Bootcamp Monster Fitness isnt your thing, teaching early morning yoga classes might be more your speed. Its a field that can be tailored to your personal strengths and talents.Additionally, it is not a field with a lot of distractions. If multitasking is your biggest trigger, teaching fitness lets you focus literally on what your body (or your clients bodies) are doing at this moment in time.Landscape DesignerLandscape designers are responsible for planning and designing outdoor spaces like yards, gardens, lawns, and other outdoor spaces. Landscape designers typically complete a bachelors degree, plus an internship or residency program. The median salary for landscape designers is $63,810, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.Why is it good for anxiety? Plants are know n soothers, and like working with animals, it is kind of a built-in stress reliever. For people who have OCD or similar disorders, it can also be a way to focus on planning and details productively.If you have an anxiety disorder, you dont have to suck it up and spend your career reacting to stressors. You have the power to choose a career path that works for youand whether thats in a field youve always wanted to go into, or an industry you hadnt really considered before, you have the ability to make it work for you. Good luck

5 Ways To Conquer Career Paralysis

5 Ways To Conquer Career Paralysis What do you want to do with your life?For five years I answered this question confidently. I welches going to become a sociology professor. Id apply for qualittuate school, get into a top-notch Ph.D. program and the rest would be history. There was just one problem. Despite what I was telling people, I wasnt sure if I wanted to be a sociology professor. I had a severe case of career paralysis.Being indecisive about your career aspirations is common. But being indecisive to the point of feeling paralyzed isnt something you can just shake off.During my final years of college, I had bouts of crippling doubt and anxiety. I didnt apply for graduate school. Instead, I applied for a Fulbright grant to teach English abroad. Fortunately, I got it and spent two glorious years in South Korea.But when my grant period ended, I was right back where I started. The career paralysis was back. What should I do? What was my true calling? What kind of career would make me happy?The answer was, obviously, that I dont know. It took several conversations and months of worry for me to realize that thinking extra hard wasnt going to help. I had to take concreteactionsto answer these questions.1. Work your network.Research is your first step to curing career paralysis, and the most valuable research I did was simply talking to people. I began working my network without even realizing it. Using your network doesnt have to mean asking people for a job. When I returned from teaching in Korea, I paid visits to former professors. Sure, I had grad school on the brain, but I was also genuinely happy to see and chat with them again.Naturally, we talked about my interest in a sociology Ph.D. They gave me insight into grad school applications, life in a Ph.D. program and the daily responsibilities of a professor. My professors were also aware of resources that I wasnt, including people I shouldreach out to.2. Schedule informational interviews.Recently, I told so meone Id never done an informational interview. Later I realized that was a lie. Informational interviews dont have to be the stagnant, awkward situation youre imagining. Theyre conversations with people who do interesting things that you might like to do too. The best informational interviews arise from an authentic desire to speak with that person.I found one interviewee through a Facebook event page. Someone had left a comment saying he couldnt go. When my cursor passed over this strangers profile picture, the phrase Visual Sociology popped out at me. It felt like finding a unicornId been looking at visual sociology as a possibility to combine my interests in art and sociology. So I asked my mutual Facebook friends about this visual sociologist. I found out he was a Fulbright Korea alumni and reached out. He readily agreed to talk with me and we spent nearly an hour on the phone.You might not find your unicorns the same way. Maybe someone in your network will recommend one of the ir connections. Maybe one of your friends works at a company whose values are closely aligned with your own. Keep your eyes open and your Facebook tab too.3. Take advantage of verbunden resources.As a freelancer, Ive learned not to underestimate the Internet. Theres an overwhelming amount of information available, but with the right Google search terms, you have access to exactly what you need, including conversations and community.Once I started looking into graduate school applications, I was instantly overwhelmed. There was just so much to consider. It turns out, thousands of other people are online feeling overwhelmed by graduate school applications too. I dont have many friends currently pursuing Ph.D. programs in sociology, but I can read about dozens of accounts through blogs, forums and QA sites. I go to these sites to have conversations no one else would be interested in having, like how high my GRE scores should be or the awkward art of writing personal statements.4.Find a job to shadow.Heres a secret I didnt share earlier. In college, I was on track to graduate with a sociology BA in three years. But then a ridiculous friend asked why I was graduating early if I didnt know what I wanted to do with my life. After that, I couldnt get the idea out of my head. So I stayed in college a fourth year to upgrade my art minor into a major. And thanks to some excellent courses, I got an inside look into the life of an artist.My program brought in visiting artists to give talks and share their work with us. We toured local artists studios. One class even included the opportunity to hold our own exhibit. Without this experience, I never would have realized how much work goes on behind the scenes of a gallery exhibit.These experiences were all a form of job shadowing. Even though we typically think of job shadowing as an activity for K-12 students, recent graduates or people changing careers, it can benefit mora people than kids on a field trip.Before you spam a nyone with requests to do a shadow, check online. A local university, hospital or your chamber of commerce might offer job shadowing programs. If you cant find a program, dont despair. Job shadowing is similar to informational interviewing. If, after youve interviewed someone, you still want to learn more, ask if you can shadow them on the job. If youre not comfortable or it doesnt seem appropriate to ask, downgrade your request to a brief workplace visit or tour instead of a full day of shadowing.5. Pursue part-time or volunteer work.The fastest and most direct way to learn if you like a job is to do it. Currently, most of my freelance work falls into digital and social media absatzwirtschaft. But initially, I didnt know anything about using social media for business. In a happy coincidence, my church asked me if Id be interested in posting on their social media accounts and here I am today.Volunteering with my church gave me the opportunity to manage an organizations accounts and get a glimpse of what it would feel like to take my career in a marketing direction. I honed skills fit for a content manager or social media coordinator.If there are skills youre interested in practicing or learning, look for opportunities to use these skills. You might find part-time work that lets you test those skills. Or you may prefer to volunteer at local non-profits.At the time of this writing, I continue to look for opportunities to use my skills for causes and industries that matter to me. My current list includes organizations focused on social justice and the arts whats on your list?--Monica Heilman is a blogger and copywriter who specializes in digital marketing and the arts. Someday you might find Monica holed up in an ivory tower, but for now,you can learn about her writing services and view her art at