What Is Angst?

I decided to also add Angst to the two other German entries in our career dictionary, Schadenfreude and Treppenwitz. So what is Angst and why do I include it here?

Angst is a gut-gripping emotional state – a mix of anxiety & suffering where you feel trapped by what you can’t know or control (and yet want to overcome), but can also almost taste the possibility of a hopeful outcome…just out of reach. (Those Germans sure know how to pack a lot into one word!)

Having worked with job search and job seekers for many years now, I don’t think there’s a more perfect word than Angst to describe that feeling so many job seekers get while waiting to hear back about their interview. Even an occasional “we know nothing yet” from HR could help bring them down from major high anxiety into a more normal state of mere unbridled frustration and rage. But when you sit in free-floating unknown about something as important as a job and hear nothing back at all, and yet continue to nurture that grain of hope…aaaah…there we have Angst!

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NOTE: If you want to suggest changes to this or any other definition in our career dictionary, please feel free to add your suggestions in a comment.