Keep up with changes in your company and your target area. To compete in today's competitive market, you must know:
- yourself
- the market both inside and outside your company
- how to compete against "trained" job hunters
Job hunting is no longer something that happens only when you want to change jobs. Do it informally all the time to stay sharp in your present position.
You should always be aware of what may adversely affect your present security. Don't expect your employer to tell you that the company or your department is heading in a different direction. Be ready when the time for change comes. Take advantage of changes so you can move your career in the direction you want it to go. Take control and "impose your own terms upon life."
In today's world, many people job hunt virtually all the time. Twelve years ago, at a time when U.S. corporations were more stable, I met an executive at a major pharmaceuticals company. He had been with that company thirty years, and planned to stay there until retirement.
Yet, while I was talking to him, he reached into his bottom drawer and pulled out an up to date resumed He was not starting a new job hunt; he believed he should always have an up to date resume and keep on looking even though he had been working at the same company for thirty
PLAN YOUR NEXT MOVE
Plan your career transitions your moves from one job to the next don't have them thrust upon you. First, know which job is right for you: a job in which you will excel and feel satisfied doing. Then see how well your present job fits those desires. Don't leave your job for another one that is equally unsatisfying. On the other hand, don't remain in your current job out of inertia.
Career transitions are prompted by changes in a company such as when it cuts back or introduces major technological or strategic changes or by a change in you and your goals for your life. Be alert for a coming transition.
IF YOU'RE THINKING ABOUT CHANGING JOBS
If you don't like your present job, don't leave yet... a good job hunt starts at home. Try to enrich your present job or move elsewhere in the company. Leave only after you are convinced that there is nothing there for you.
Whether you want to stay or leave, find out what your options are and what marketable skills you possess. Figure out what would make a good growth move for you.
One way to find out is to talk, on an informal basis, to people in other companies who are at least two levels higher than you are. They have an overview of the broad spectrum of job possibilities and are also in a position to hire you, or know others who might.
Another way to find out what is marketable is to look at the ads in the paper. You could get ideas for growing in your present position.
Let me give you an example. As soon as I accepted the job of vice president of operations for an advertising agency, I started clipping ads for V.P. of personnel, company controller, V.P. of finance, general manager anything that would apply, even remotely, to my new position. The ads gave me ideas that neither my new employer nor I would have thought of.
These ads also told me the likelihood of being able to get one of those jobs. Even though I clipped lots of ads for V.P. of finance, I would never qualify because they required skills I did not have and was not interested in acquiring.
Ads also let you see who is hiring and what is in demand. Ads teach you the buzzwords of certain professions, and indicate how to tailor your resume just in case.
The fact that you're constantly job hunting can only be good for your present employer. It motivates you to do better, keeping your company more competitive than if you were not aware of what was happening outside.
