Dealing with Negative Job Search Experiences With Adaptive Mindsets

Searching for a job is associated with various obstacles and difficulties, which elicit job seekers’ emotional responses. In a cross-sectional (N=99) and a 5- wave longitudinal field study (N=227) among job seekers, we first examined whether self-compassion helps them to better cope emotionally with the difficulties they encounter during job search. Second, we investigated whether several other mindsets can have similar buffering effects on people’s emotions. Results of Study 1 indicate that self-compassion relates positively to positive affect and negatively to negative affect. In addition, self- compassion moderates the negative relationship between difficulties during job search and positive affect, such that the relationship becomes less negative for job seekers with more self-compassion. Results of Study 2 showed that self-compassion, learning goal orientation, and challenge appraisals can function as adaptive mindsets that attenuate the positive relationship of perceived lack of job search progress with different types (i.e., activating and deactivating) of negative affect. Job seekers with an adaptive mindset reported less negative affect following lack of progress than job seekers who had a less adaptive mindset. These findings suggest that self- compassion, learning goal orientation, and challenge appraisals can be beneficial for job seekers’ well-being during a difficult job search process.