The Popcorn Effect 🍿

Everyone who has been through the process of job searching knows that it is the single most draining part of making a career change. Throwing oneself into the fray of “LinkedIn Easy-Apply” can be all at once thrilling, and also just a lot like screaming into a void.

If you’re like me, your entire professional reputation was previously built on post-shift drinks and being in the right place at the right time, which worked! This process got me to the top of my field once. The idea of selling my skills via resume, with a profile picture and a 30-second elevator pitch is just…. gross. But it has to be this way, or so they tell me.

The most discouraging part of it all is the unrelenting silence that returns from the void. No matter the volume of resumes sent out, nothing comes back but little echoes in the form of auto-generated emails saying, “The algorithm wasn’t impressed with you. Good luck, goofball 💫 ”

However, light is still to be found in this darkness. It has come to me in the form of my classmates finding jobs after long stretches of nothing. It has also come in the shape of very supportive friends and family. Most recently, though, my career coach told me a very sweet analogy that I will carry with me as a talisman. I give you all, “The popcorn effect ™️”.

When you’re making popcorn at home and you start your timer, (3:10 but that’s between me and my microwave) you know not to expect any ‘popping’ until about a minute and a half into the cycle. You wait, and eventually, as sure as every bag of popcorn before this one, it begins to PoP… increasing in frequency until finally, the sound of it becomes overwhelming and you think, ‘oh my word how can one little bag possibly contain so much noise?’.

We also know what would happen if at around 2 minutes you opened the door to the microwave and let all the heat out because you thought to yourself, ‘Surely there should be more popping by now?’.

Such is true with the process of finding a job,

1. Set the timer - Set a realistic time frame for finding your first job.
2. Apply consistent heat - Keep applying and sending out those cold e-mails. Don’t let a single day go by without chasing a lead.
3. Don’t open the GD door - Don’t stop or get discouraged or wonder, ‘When is this going to start working?’ and let the heat out of your ‘microwave’.
4. Trust the popcorn to do what the popcorn always does - See the success that your classmates have found, trust your family when they remind you that you’re smart enough to do anything, follow your coach's advice. And if it feels like you’re overwhelmed with opportunity, you’re likely close to the end.
5. If at exactly 3m 10s your bag of popcorn isn’t full of fluffy buttery puffed grains just put it in the trash and throw another one in there. Sometimes there are duds as with anything in life - Set a new goal, adjust your approach and start again.

I know first-hand today what people have told me since the first day of the boot camp, the job search is really the ‘second boot camp’. This is not easy, or fun… much like waiting for popcorn when your movie is qued up and your popcorn won’t pop as fast as you’d like it to.

But you can do this, and the reward will be absolutely worth the effort, so keep moving. Good luck, goofball 💫 indeed!

Popcorn is also my favorite food so I’ll just go ahead and ride this one into the ground. ✌️