Job searching is one heck of a job to have. And while you’re on duty, there are many things that induce the dread of any job seeker—job search fatigue. From never-ending cover letter requests to test tasks, pre-screen interviews, draining face-to-face interviews, trial first day, and you name it, only to find out another candidate has been chosen, it's something that puts a strain on your wellbeing in a way that not many things have.

The worst part of the job search is that until you find one, you are not allowed to quit. The problem is that if you succumb to job search fatigue, you’ll prolong the whole process and the search will become no less easier, but way longer. So you wonder what can be done about it?

“It produces this feeling of ‘what’s the point’ and ‘I don’t want to put myself out there’ and obviously that’s a problem,” said Dawn Norris, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. But the bigger problem is that if “you’re not seeking, you’re not going to find anything.”

But according to Norris, job search fatigue is much more complex than simply “an exhaustion of rejection and not hearing back.” It turns out, it has also to do with the loss of identity. “For those of us whose identities were connected to our jobs, those rejections and not hearing back creates a mismatch. We’re constantly getting these feedback mismatches between who we believe ourselves to be and what we’re hearing. When we hear that, it increases our job search fatigue.”

Then, there’s a stigma about job seekers as they tend to self-isolate and put up a smile every time talking to people about how their life is going. But it’s really important to talk to others to get that much-needed social support and reassurance that you’re going to be just fine. Also, people may help you to learn new job search strategies, give a fresh perspective on your skills and experience, provide useful tips, and after all… help you to find a job.