TCB Report: When Should You Start Looking for a New Job?
Those of us who are employed live in perilous times. What seems like a “Dream Job” can quickly sour or disappear in the blink of an eye. While I remain hopeful for you that your position will remain stable and continue to give you the challenges and rewards that you desire and deserve, I am doubtful that this will remain the case and that you will retire from that wonderful job. Therefore it behooves me to encourage you to heed the following advice.
First of all, the best time to look for a new, better, more challenging and financially rewarding position is when things are going well. You are on your game and everyone loves you. Co-workers are on your side and your boss adores you. Getting references is not a problem and you don’t have to answer the potentially embarrassing question, “Why did you leave your last position?”
Secondly, keep you resume current and up to date. Get periodic letters of reference. If things do go south for you after you check out a position or two, you have the proof that things were great until they heard that you might be “looking”.
Thirdly, place any letters of commendation or news articles in which you are identified (positive articles) in an addendum folder. When you get an interview, you can hand the folder over to your perspective new employer. Its not part of your resume, but it shows that you are no joke.
Good luck to you and be ready for the next Big Thing!
TCB
From the Author:
I am a life long learner, with decades of experience and wisdom to share. I am here to help, field questions and stimulate discussion. Comment on my posts and I will reply promptly.
-Thomas C. Barry
Career and Education Correspondent for CareerSearchToday.com
TCB Report: The Importance of the Resume
Most positions, above the minimum wage level, will require you to submit a resume in order to be considered for the position. I have received up to 300 resumes for a single opening. Resumes are first used as a way to weed out unlikely candidates. Believe it or not, the "No thank you" pile was first created with resumes that had spelling errors and/or appeared sloppy in appearance.
Next, we looked for those resumes that were not a near perfect fit for the advertised opening and added them to the stack. Those resumes that made the first cut were then scrutinized for reasons to interview the candidate. Things we looked for included: Education, additional training, community involvement, life experiences, and anything else that might indicate that this is an outstanding candidate. We knew that we wanted to interview at least five and no more that ten candidates. So what ever we had to do to get to a workable number, we did it.
I am sure that we lost some very good candidates over the years using this method, but the ones selected to be interviewed were good candidates as well. The purpose of the resume is to get you to the interview stage of the hiring process. If you are serious about wanting that interview, your resume must:
- Be neat and clean
- Be well written
- Emphasis your strengths as they relate to the job description
- Detail your employment (educational) history
- Include experiences that made you a better person (military, volunteering, service orgs.)
- Have a cover letter that states why you would love to work for this company and why you would be a perfect fit
- Kept it three pages or less
Good Luck! -TCB
From the Author:
I am a life long learner, with decades of experience and wisdom to share. I am here to help, field questions and stimulate discussion. Comment on my posts and I will reply promptly.
-Thomas C. Barry
Career and Education Correspondent for CareerSearchToday.com
