The job hunt is not for the faint of heart. It requires purposeful intent and clarity in order to successfully achieve your next career goals. I have come up with several steps that will help you go into your search with the right mindset…
The Intent: Why are you looking to leave your current situation?
Whether you are seeking career advancement, higher pay, different hours, corporate structure, company culture, work-life balance, or conflict of interest, it is important this is identified in order to realize what you are hoping to accomplish, fix or avoid in your next career venture.
The Quick Fix: Is this a knee jerk reaction? Is this fixable? Is there room to grow within your current company?
If the answer is “no” to these secondary questions, it might be time to start responsibly looking for new employment. I say “responsibly” because it is important not just to jump ship at the first opportunity and land yourself in the same spot in a few months. Frequent changes in employment are red flags to future employers. In my experience, a company you want to work for is a company that values longevity.
The Flipside: If the answer is “yes” to one of those questions, it might be an opportunity to attempt to work things out with your current employer.
If you make an attempt to fix your current situation, and still decide that it’s not going to work, it shows your future employer that you are not looking for the “easy out”. You are hoping to overcome obstacles first, but prioritizing what your motivator for moving is (time, money, family, schedule, responsibility, etc). Do not look at these things as a negative, we all (well, most of us) have positive and negative employment experiences, but the important piece is what you take away from those experiences and how you handle your departure.
The In-Between: The If you are somewhere in between, you can passively start networking with trusted recruiters and industry professionals to see what else is out there.
A recruiter can keep your confidentiality but aggressively search for you, while you focus on being successful in your current role. As a passive candidate, know the key determining factors that would flip you from passive to active for both your current employer and a potential future employer.
Finally, searching for a new job is something that should happen with a good amount of thought behind it. If you are patient and diligent in finding the purpose of your intended search, you will find yourself having a lot more clarity and ease when speaking to recruiters and hiring managers. Know what your next career goals look like in order to not only find your next job, but to satisfy you with the next career opportunity that you have been looking for. Once you have that clarity, you are ready to start searching!
