6 tips to looking for a job while employed

If you are employed, should you be looking for a new job? In short, if you are unhappy with your job, you can always look for another one. I have clients who seek new positions all the time.

Why would someone look for a new job?

Reasons employed people may choose to look for a new position even if they had been happy in their old position:

1. Management changed – if you were hired under one manager and new management takes over, you may not hit it off as well or your new manager may be the wrong person for the position. You can stay and see if it changes but if it continues and it makes you unhappy to go to work, it may be time to move on.
2. There has been a merger or acquisition and your role is not the same even if you kept the same title.
3. You need more money. You can’t make it on your current salary.
4. You may be wanting more of a challenge. If you have been there more than 5 years and there are no higher level positions that you could apply internally to, you may want to move on.
5. You have a career plan and you realize that the next step needs to be outside the company for you to be able to achieve those goals.
6. You have a new degree and you would like to transition to a role and / or industry that is a better fit to use your new education.
7. You have a burning desire to try a specific type of job and you cannot do it in your current company.

6 tips to looking for a job when you are still employed

1. Keep your job search quiet, especially at work. Personally, I would suggest telling no one but if you do tell anyone, make sure you can trust them to keep it confidential.
2. Don’t job search on company time. More than one person has been fired because they used company resources or took a sick day to interview.
3. Make sure you create a pro / con list because the grass isn’t always greener and sometimes when people move once, they do it over and over again. They end up with 3 short time jobs because they either switched or were recruited away and their resume looks very choppy. Make sure your move is a good one.
4. Research salaries using salary.com or glassdoor.com to see what positions in your zipcode are paying. Make sure to weigh all of the benefits to make sure you are not giving up some of the non-salary items. Is your vacation 3 weeks now? Can you live with going back to one week?
5. Be prepared to negotiate for things you really want. If you would only make a job change if you had certain benefits and conditions, write them down.
6. Don’t go into a job search without a well-written resume and LinkedIn profile, the competition is stiff today.

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