There will be times in your life when you are looking at other working opportunities while you are still employed. This can be a highly stressful situation as you have to manage your priorities around the search for work and do your best to put yourself out there to new employers. If you are looking at ways that you can improve your job search, there are a number of steps that you can take on. The following blog post is going to check out just a few of these in a higher level of detail, as you may be able to put them into practice in your own life.
Dip Your Toe in the Water First
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When you are first seeking out new work, there is simply no point in rushing in and pinging off applications left, right, and center. Instead, it is going to be worthwhile looking to dip your toe in the water first. This means checking out the type of opportunities that are available to you now.
After this, you can then set about deciding the opportunities that you may want to pursue further and the ones that you can let slide at the moment. Another way that you may want to dip your toe in the water is to take on the new opportunity as a side hustle. This is often the way that many people eventually go self-employed or take on an entirely new career path. This works perfectly for those seeking a new job because they can control their working hours around job applications and interviews. There are many fields that you can work on a self-employed basis, including trucking and shipping work. Learn more about shipping work if this is something that could work for you while job hunting – you never know, it could end up being the perfect long-term career you’ve been wanting.
Update your Resume
There are some activities that you will be able to complete without alerting your current employer to what is happening at the moment. This means updating your resume to ensure that it includes all of your most up-to-date and relevant work experience, as well as any specific achievements from the time that you have been working there. As well as being a useful admin task, it can help to focus your mind and put you in the very best possible position to seek out the opportunities in front of you.
Decide What to Apply For
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After the first couple of steps, you can start to put in your applications for the positions you have shortlisted and have decided are worthwhile for you to apply to. This way, you are going to focus more of your time and attention on the applications that mean the most to you. After all, when you are currently employed, it can be stressful to have to apply to other jobs on the side simultaneously. So, if you have narrowed down your search and pre-selected a few that appeal to you the very most, it can be more than worthwhile.
Schedule Interviews Outside of Working Hours
When you have started to put in your applications, the eventual outcome that you will be hoping for is that you get some interviews. However, you need to be wary about when you are scheduling these as you are bound to be limited in terms of the hours that you have readily available. With this in mind, it is certainly worth scheduling them outside of your regular work. However, with more and more people working from home and able to be more flexible with their workload, this means that it could be easier to schedule interviews at suitable times than it otherwise would have been.
Be Wary With References
While there are plenty of employers out there who are going to seek out references, you need to be careful about putting down any employers or colleagues who do not know that you are looking for work. For many people, they are simply able to get around this by putting down that ‘references are available on request’. Often, it is the case that references are contacted after the job offer has actually been put in, so there is no point in putting anything down too early and potentially harming your current working relationships. After all, you do not really know exactly how long you are going to need to continue working for in your current position.
Ensure Discretion From Your Prospective Employer
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When you have gone through a couple of stages of interviews, it is then going to be the case that you could be offered the job or references could be contacted. There is no point in rushing into anything until you are sure that everything is in place. This means that your prospective employer has a higher level of discretion to ensure that the move is firmly in place before too much action is taken.
Ensure Everything Is in Place Before Acting
The final step is that you will be finally ready to move onto your new position after it has been offered and all references have been successfully checked. However, you certainly need to make sure that everything is properly in place. This way, you will be more than ready to move across to your new position without a hitch. The timing of this can be highly important as there is simply no point in acting too soon before you absolutely have to.
It can prove to be a delicate balance when you are seeking out a job, but you are currently employed, but these are just a few of the best ways that you are going to be able to do it successfully. It is worth taking on a step-by-step approach to ensure that you are fully ready for the move when it eventually comes. In the modern world of flexible working, it tends to be easier than it would have been in days gone by. However, discretion is still going to be the operative word, as well as the patience and perseverance to continue until the search is over.
