Hell Yes, I Stopped Looking for a Job. Why Should I Keep Begging?

Let me say it plain. I stopped looking for a job, and I am not sorry.

I was overqualified, and everybody in the room knew it. But it was never just about the degrees or the years of experience. It was about confidence. I knew who I was. I knew my position, I knew my qualifications, and I knew exactly how to do the job.

Some people cannot handle that.

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Let us think about it for a minute. Somebody is always supervising you, a man or a woman. Either way, it hurts when you are smart, you know your lane, and you say so out loud. In my experience, some supervisors do not want a confident woman doing her job well. It makes them nervous.

Then you stand your ground on what is right and what is wrong, and that is when the labels come. You know the ones. Or they just push you to the side and leave you out of the room.

And you get tired. Because now you are fighting against them instead of working with them. If you have morals and values, you are going to take a stand. Every time. That is not a flaw. That is who you are.

On top of that, they did not want to pay what my experience was worth, or they wanted to treat me like I should be grateful to be in the room. I have been in the room. I have run the room. I was not about to be grateful for a seat.

And the rejections, Lord. You apply to so many jobs you lose count, and every “we went with another candidate” lands somewhere in your chest. It is a roller coaster with no snack break. Up, down, up, down, and then one day you just quit hitting send. Nobody sits you down and tells you “you are done.” You stop on your own.

Most women I know do the same thing when they are qualified and confident. You cannot keep asking people who will not see you.

So what happens next? You have two choices.

Two choices, and neither one is easy

One. You play by their rules, keep your head down, and keep the job. Some women do that and I am not judging one of them.

Two. You stand up, become your own boss, and depend on nobody.

Let me tell you something about that second choice. It is harder than anything I have ever done.

Because now you are doing two jobs at once. You are asking people to believe in you and in what you do, so you better come correct. You better be professional, because if you are not, they will not deal with you. And you are also asking people to pay your price.

Here is what I know. Do not lower your standard. Do not lower your cost.

Somebody will look at your number and hesitate. And those same somebodies will turn around and pay another person more without blinking. You know exactly who I am talking about. I do not have to say it. You have seen it too.

So do not shrink your price to make them comfortable.

Yes, I struggled to get my business off the ground. I am not going to dress that up. But I would rather struggle on my own terms than get paid less to be treated like less.

So no, I do not regret it. Not for one minute.

If you are reading this tired of knocking on doors that will not open, I see you. You are not lazy and you are not done. You might just be finished asking the wrong people for permission.

And there is a number out there that proves I am not the only one. I will show you in my next post.

Now tell me: did you stop looking for a job too? What was the real reason? Say it in the comments. Nobody is judging you here.

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