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The HigherEdJobs Podcast is dedicated to helping higher education professionals find fulfillment in their careers and be the change agents that higher education needs in today's world. Join hosts Andrew Hibel and Kelly Cherwin, along with guest experts, as they examine job search strategies and break down the latest news and trends in higher education.
Andrew Hibel: [00:00:00] Welcome to the HigherEdJobs podcast. I'm Andy Hibel, the Chief operating Officer and one of the co-founders of HigherEdJobs.
Kelly Cherwin: And I'm Kelly Cherwin, the Director of Editorial Strategy. Today we're gonna be talking about the topic of rage applying, and we're going to be responding to an article that our regular contributor, Justin Zackal, wrote on the topic.
Kelly Cherwin: For those of you out there listening who aren't familiar with this topic, the concept actually has been around for a while. Meaning, you know, you're applying for new roles out of frustration due to many reasons on the job. It could be, you know, compensation, management, you don't like your duties, you don't like coworkers, whatever might be.
Kelly Cherwin: So, like I said, this has been around for a while, but it recently has surfaced in a way on TikTok and there was a person that said that she encouraged people to apply, "keep applying when you're mad, because that energy will push you to greater horizons than the job you're stuck in." So we're gonna be tackling this, this topic today.
Andrew Hibel: That sounds great. [00:01:00] I know both of our lives with our children are very much affected by TikTok, but never has TikTok come into our work life quite the same way with such rage, I guess, towards us. We definitely felt like we needed to address this with our podcast community. So, uh, I hope you'll indulge us for a few minutes as we try to kind of wrap our heads around this topic.
Andrew Hibel: I was kind of interested to hear the origins of like, where did this go? And I can't claim to understand the viral nature of TikTok, but what happened here? How did it become such a big deal?
Kelly Cherwin: I'm wondering if it's because there are so many people that are currently frustrated in their position and when they heard this, they're like, yeah, "that's me and I feel validated that there's other people like me out there." So that's where I'm kind of guessing that this might have started from.
Andrew Hibel: And as we all know right now, the job search market's different than it was prior to the pandemic. There's fewer people chasing more jobs and if you have an emotional experience, you can kind of [00:02:00] react on it a little bit differently than maybe you would've before, it kind of seems.
Kelly Cherwin: Yeah, I agree. Definitely a lot of things have changed, and people are reacting differently, so I think that's where we should maybe start our conversation talking about what are some good things of this term rage applying, or I guess I should reword that -- Are there good things of rage applying?
Andrew Hibel: I certainly think there's parts of rage, and maybe I'll broaden that just a bit, but a strong emotional reaction to your employment situation, your career. It could be a life situation. That emotional reaction, I think has a lot of value in a career path and at least entertaining the idea of changing a job in the process. That's been around since we started the website in the nineties, that people react to things that happened to them, we're human.
Andrew Hibel: Over the years being involved in this business, people do approach me regularly and are asking, you know, this happened at work or that happened at work, or [00:03:00] I'm just kind of not feeling emotionally connected to the work I do. Should I be looking at something different? And then of course, you can go through the different parts of the emotional part of it. I think we had a recent mailbag question when somebody's like, "what do I do when I'm kind of shamed in a meeting by my superior?" If you don't have an emotional reaction to that, you're not human. The question is, what are you gonna do about it?
Kelly Cherwin: Andy, I'm glad you brought that up about reacting and you know, it's normal for humans to have these reactions and I'm gonna bring a little bit of my behavior background in, and when I digest this, it makes a little bit more sense in terms of how this could be good when an employee is dissatisfied in the workplace. There's typically four different ways that he or she can respond. One person might take the approach that's very different than the other person, so one person might just put up with it and be loyal and just keep going, keep plugging away. Another person might be destructive in terms of not doing work, coming in late, kind of the more the quiet, [00:04:00] quitting concept that we've talked. Some people might actually do something in terms of being active and speaking up, talking to their leadership team, addressing coworkers that might be causing this dissatisfaction, talking about higher compensation. And then there's some people that take an active approach in dealing with this rage and they leave. They go and look for another job.
Kelly Cherwin: And that's kind of, I think where we're going here with this rage applying. They're like, "you know what. I've had it. I'm making an active decision and I'm going to go and look for a different job because I'm hoping the grass is greener on the other side."
Andrew Hibel: That part of it, the emotion that says, you know, this is where I'm at right now -- It's authentic. It's who I am. It's real. That's often a very important fact in the process. I think for me, what I'd encourage people to do is to lean into the emotional part of this and say, "what does that mean? How am I feeling? Is this a one-off event or is this something that's indicative [00:05:00] of something, a broader part?"
Andrew Hibel: I think the part of the term of rage applying that strikes me as a little bit not in your best interest, is the combination of rage and applying. I would challenge you to think now we all live in our homes, and if you're in your home, and you have that stupid cabinet that you happen to put all the glasses in and every time you go to get a drink of water, that cabinet doesn't close or the knob falls off and it just begins to piss you off.
Andrew Hibel: Do you say, you know, "I'm sick of the stupid cabinet. I'm gonna go look at houses tomorrow and I'm going to buy a house or I'm gonna get a new apartment," or whatever your situation is. Are you just, are you rage moving? Would you ever consider a rage move? If you wouldn't consider a rage move, you shouldn't consider a rage job change.
Andrew Hibel: Separate the emotion from the tactical part of a career path [00:06:00] and a job search. That doesn't mean they can't be in close proximity, but separate the two from what you're doing. Channel the emotion into a strategic, cohesive plan on what you're trying to accomplish, what you're looking for, what your ideals are, and then spend your energy doing that.
Andrew Hibel: I think Justin did a really good job in the article going through some of those things that could end up being counterproductive to your job search or your career or in, in the worst case of scenarios that really put your best version of yourself out there to potential good suitors. That for me is the part that I would really advocate for folks to think more about in leaning into the emotional part of whatever they're going through.
Kelly Cherwin: Andy, I love that you said separate the word rage from applying. I couldn't agree more with that. And actually, you know, you just referenced Justin's article and I was looking down at it and he actually quoted Jurassic Park and he said [00:07:00] that scientists were too preoccupied with whether they could, that "they didn't stop to think that if they should."
Kelly Cherwin: So I think this is kind of the advice to our job seekers, the people that might be considering this rage applying. Is it the best move? Is it strategic? So kind of dig deep and try to discover what is the root of this dissatisfaction. Then strategically decide what to do. Maybe it is actually finding a new position.
Kelly Cherwin: Maybe it is okay to send out the resumes and, you know, look for a different role, but having it, like you said, not doing it in haste, not doing it emotionally, you know, you're not gonna rage buy a house. So why should you make a major -- you know, it is a major commitment -- it's a major life decision to send out 15 applications/resumes today, and I'm gonna start a new job next week because, if you haven't discovered what the whole reason you're leaving, then this might carry on to the next position.
Kelly Cherwin: I think Justin said that in his article. So the other thing I wanted to put out there in terms of, you know, [00:08:00] being strategic is you might send out these resumes and have this empowerment, like, "yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna show them and I'm gonna get a new role." Well, what if you send out the resumes and you get some rejection letters?
Kelly Cherwin: How does that affect you? So there's a lot that goes into this. So I know that the TikTok, um, what, what do you say? The Toker, um, was saying, you know, "go get 'em and apply and you can get a job tomorrow and make $25,000." It's not that easy. So I think we're both on the same page of saying channel that energy and do it in a strategic way.
Andrew Hibel: I think that that is spot on, Kelly. We are really focusing on the tactical part of where this goes, and I think the Jurassic park quote from Justin is really, really, really appropriate. I'm gonna go with a little bit different of a movie as we talk about the emotional side of it, because I think also what I'd caution people too is there may be a little bit of regret [00:09:00] after the fact to feeling the emotion, and that's okay.
Andrew Hibel: I understand where that might come from. When you have a strong emotion, you're like, why did I react that strongly to it? But what I'd wanna say and might come back to a little bit different of an angle, different of an era -- a spoonful of rage really can be a helpful part of a job search. It helps the job search go down.
Andrew Hibel: So when you have a little bit of that rage or a strong emotion, that's actually a good motivator for you to start starting your process of being diligent about your career and evaluating your situation. And I think in the article, Justin also mentions. Maybe actually you've had a really good relationship with your supervisor.
Andrew Hibel: You like the work, and it's a great organization. It's a great school that you're with. Maybe that's a time to try to remedy whatever triggered that emotion as opposed to absolutely thinking it's time to go. The grass isn't always greener on the other side, and understanding the blessings in the career that you're in and [00:10:00] the spot that you're in now, sometimes the emotion is good for recognizing that.
Andrew Hibel: So I think that there's, there's a part of that. So don't ever feel guilt about having that emotion. The emotion is real, but what you're gonna do with the emotion is up to you. Don't let the emotion drive the process. Let the emotion start the process and then let strategy drive the process.
Kelly Cherwin: Thanks, Andy for all that. I wanted to go over a little bit more of -- I know we've talked about kind of the good and the bad, and I'm trying to see both sides of the coin here. And I know we talked about, you know, not being reactive, you know, trying to, being strategic and being proactive in that, you know, you said like try to channel and you know, try to remedy what's going on at the situation and say you do that, but you still feel like you want to send out some resumes.
Kelly Cherwin: Best case scenario, you get practice interviewing. There's nothing wrong with that, or you see what your value is in terms of worth in the market, and then you can consider maybe, should I take option B or should I stay with my current employer? So it's having the [00:11:00] options and doing it like we keep saying in a strategic way.
Kelly Cherwin: So I think that's a good thing to consider.
Andrew Hibel: I like to remind people when, when people think of HigherEdJobs, they think of people obviously looking for jobs, but about a third of our audience actually isn't in an active job search, and one of the things that I encourage people who aren't in an active job search to do is simply setting up a job agent or a job alert on HigherEdJobs and just keep track of the opportunities that come your way.
Andrew Hibel: I actually think that's probably something that's just a good idea to kind of do your proper career hygiene, to have a sense of that. So when you come to these moments, you're able to have a sense of where you want to go and what the environment looks like compared to normal for that. If you're not really having a sense of what the market looks like, only at points where you're looking at jobs, I think you're losing some of the context and nuance of what is available to you in your career. [00:12:00] So I would also encourage if you're not doing that, you're not in a job search and you're not feeling like rage applying now and you haven't done something like that, I'd encourage you to do that on our site and other sites you might use as well.
Kelly Cherwin: Great advice. I don't know if I can even add anything more to that. You summed it up so. So I hope that really helps our listeners out there digest what they're thinking on rage applying.
Andrew Hibel: We'd love to hear your thoughts on rage applying or find out if you've rage applied. Please feel free to email us at podcast at higheredjobs.com or tweet us at @HigherEdJobs and let us know what you think about rage applying and maybe how you've heard of others or have done so yourself, had those similar experiences and have emotionally moved you to think about your career.
Andrew Hibel: Thanks again for listening to the HigherEdJobs podcast, and we look forward to talking to you the next time.