Applying for jobs is an agonising business. I’m not just talking about rejections or the numerous applications that go completely unanswered. It’s the entire process, and the worst part is repeatedly having to evaluate yourself, your skills, your experience and your personality.

Since I started applying for jobs again, my brain has been whirring away with questions and doubts.

• Am I looking at all the right job websites?
• When did I last check Gorkana, or Production Base?
• Do I only apply for the jobs I actually want or should I settle for anything I’m qualified for if it’s good money?
• What would happen if I just called up Alan Rusbridger and pleaded with him for a job?
• What do I actually want to do? Do I want to do print or online journalism?
• If I want to get into broadcast journalism, how do I do that without much experience?
• If I get my hair cut like Emily Mortimer in The Newsroom will that increase the likelihood of someone offering me a job?
• Do any of my friends know someone that knows someone that knows someone….
• Should I just give up and apply to be a holiday rep for the summer? (At least I’d get some sun)
• When should I call it a night, turn off my laptop and just go to bed?
• How desperate do I have to be to consider moving back home?

And all of this goes on in my own little bubble, as all my friends are at work, doing useful things and earning money.

I feel like I am a vulnerable caterpillar in a fragile cocoon waiting for someone to call saying: “Hello Katherine, the (extremely well paid) job (with a generous holiday allowance) is yours.”

And I will burst forth, an incredibly grateful butterfly. The sun will shine and spring will finally arrive.*

But that might just be my cabin fever talking.

Either way, I really need a job. And I need it soon.

*It is perhaps a tad big-headed to assume that the recent cold snap and my unemployment are mutually exclusive, but we’ll see.