How to maximize the timing for your job search

Timing for your job search? Face it, most of us are very busy. We tend to act on the urgency and skip the planning. As an entrepreneur, I plead guilty. I tend to respond to my schedule, my calendar, and the clock with more emphasis than I deliberately execute a daily plan. I have learned through the years though that when I take the time to prepare and plan, I execute better.

What is the best timing you are thinking about a career change?

In your career, you think it is time for a change. You aren’t totally happy in your present role. You have a new manager and you don’t see eye-to-eye. Is this the best timing for a career change? You want a bigger challenge and there are too many people ahead of you that are your age and maybe even have your ability so you don’t believe you can advance in your company.

You think about changing your job. You may even think about this for several years but you often fail to take any action. Then suddenly either your job ends or you have a wonderful opportunity but you aren’t ready and you may have missed the right timing to get your career change moving.

You always figured that job search was easy and maybe it was back in the day but now it is much more challenging. You never needed a resume and if you did, you figured you could whip one up in no time and it could compete against the pack. Wrong!

Job search and career change are much more complex today

My heart sinks when I have to turn down a client whose deadline is too short. There are times when I can fit an urgent request into my schedule but times like this are rare. I typically schedule out one to two weeks in advance with my Design Resumes process and I know other professional resume writers who schedule out a month or more in advance.

The key ingredients for a successful job search

• Targeted and branded professionally written resume
• Compelling cover letter to tell them you can do their job
• Fully optimized LinkedIn Profile
• Understanding of how to best use LinkedIn
• Interview coaching and preparation
• Social media job search strategies

Start your plan today. If you wait until a new opportunity is staring you in the face, you will struggle and you will feel under the gun to deliver. This is when your resume isn’t maximized with the right success stories (or maybe you didn’t even know you needed them) and if you are competing against one of my clients, you are going to have a tough time winning the job.

When I work with a client, we work on those ingredients together (and more) to assure that the foundation they need to approach a job search and land a new role is in their tool box. My collaborative and interactive style helps the client address his top concerns and be ready for the obstacles in the job search.
Plan. This could easily be a topic of its own or a series. One of the big problems I see is that we have lost the ability to plan formally ingrained in people. Saving became unknown and credit became the main way of paying for things we couldn’t afford directly. Don’t do that. If you think you are approaching a layoff or could lose your job, shore up your savings. Even if you have no plans for any job change, shore up your savings. Pay down your debts. Stop spending.

Take charge of your future. Be the pilot of your future and drive your own success.

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