WHEN TO START A JOB SEARCH
I presume all of us face such situations in our career at one point or other. I believe in one golden rule - "If you are not concerned about your career no one will be" . You have to take control of your career and steer it the right way. I normally advise people to start thinking on these lines when they do some kind of introspection as to where they are today and where they want to be.
The following are the pointers, ask these questions to yourself :
1. Do you love to go to office every morning? Do you look forward to be in office before time?
2. Do you feel your job gives you reasonable mix of routine work and few challenges?
3. Are you learning something new every day or at least every month?
4. Do you feel satisfied at the end of the day that you honestly earned your salary ?
5. Do you get a feeling that you are important to the organization and your contributions are necessary for the organization?
6. Does your manager /management) respect you for your skills and contribution?
7. Does your team respect you and they look forward for your advise and guidance?
8. Do you have enough challenges to keep you occupied for 14 hours a day ?
9. Do you recommend your company to your friends ?
Let us evaluate how do you respond to these questions. If the answer to all the 9 factors above is a Yes, then you are at the right place and do not mess up your career by changing the job. If the answers are yes for 4 factors, you should continue but have an open mind to investigate any new opportunity. If the answers are yes for 2 to 3 factors, you should seriously start looking out.
If the answer to all factors is a NO, you must change the job asap. Let me assume your answers to all factors is a NO. What do you do? There may be opportunities coming your way and some of them may be presented by the prospective employer in such a nice way that you feel you must change.
One thing to remember is to evaluate available options. A systematic approach to job search will yield greater results rather than applying to companies at random. A few tips are given below to help you land in next job !!
- Always have some offer in hand before putting in papers at current assignment ;
- Remember the maxim - Why before they say why not ?
- Look at the indicators or broad gestures of your superiors to start your job search ;
- Never discuss about interviews / prospects with others unless you get a hard copy of your offer in new company ;
- Make sure that you do not use any of the official infrastructure - mail, printed copies, address and stationery ;
- Network and talk to your friends in other companies and do a thorough job search using - Newspapers, job sites and company websites.
Happy Hunting
Best Regards
Raghav
Chief Editor HRudaya
Moderator HRinIndia
09880080321
