Why You Must Start Your Job Search NOW—a Different Take

I recently compared two USNEWS articles with the same title, only eight years apart. In 2014 the author pointed out that one of the 10 Best Times to Switch Jobs was when you’ve been with your employer more than ten years. Eight years later a different author’s insight on the same USNEWS site was when “you’ve hit a life milestone” such as the birth of a child or a marriage.

Further, an April 22, 2022, Forbes Careers Article, “Why You Should Start Your Job Search Today,” argues “timing is everything” citing early Summer and after mid-September as good “windows of opportunity,” as well as other urgent macro factors like rising inflation, the world political scene, and recent high profile hiring freezes at large companies.

Finally, I recently read an online article that defined "mid-career" is 5-10 years into one’s professional life (Indeed, March 8, 2021). Ouch—scares me to think it’s so early.

Am I speaking to you yet? Keep reading.

I just started working with a new client who relates to all the above. Yet, I believe he started his search now for an additional reason. His job search started because he needed to “know where he was going.” Reminds me of the Lewis Carroll quote frequently attributed to his book, Alice’s in Wonderland, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”

(Alice in Wonderland (Illustrator: Winter, 1924) Mad Tea Party [Public Domain] by the Toronto Public Library)

My client is “mid-career,” successful financially, his wife just had their second child. Yet, as he looks out, he’s not sure where he’s going and therefore, which road to take.

In working with me using a design-thinking approach, his “job search” is starting now, not by updating his LinkedIn profile or polishing his resume, but by examining his career to date, reflecting on what’s important to him, and identifying important themes in his life and career that will be important to him in the future call these themes “life design criteria.” When a designer creates a house, she starts with rational criteria: what’s the budget, how many bedrooms, where will the house be. But she also asks about the emotional needs: how do you want a person to feel when they come into this home, what emotions should this room evoke, what senses will this room evoke? Similarly, young mid-career professionals need design criteria: what is my purpose, what values are important, what interests must my career explore, what skills have I honed that I must leverage, what will be my legacy.

NOT having clear design criteria is my take on Why Start Your Job Search Now. If you would like to work with me in creating design criteria and starting your job search, reach out to discuss. everette@everettefortnercoaching.com