Preparing Yourself for a Future Job Search

No job is guaranteed to be permanent. In fact, very few people remain in the same job for the same employer for their entire lifetime. Factories may close down, and even government departments and facilities may be discontinued or moved. In addition, your interests may change, your current salary may become insufficient, you may want a job change because of additional education or training, or you may have reached a dead end in your current job. Because the need to hunt for a job may arise suddenly, you should give some thought to preparing yourself for this possibility.

Seek out varied duties in your present job


The best way to prepare for future job seeking is to get experience doing a variety of duties in your current job. Don't shortchange yourself by thinking that your job involves only one type of duty and refusing to perform any dudes that aren't contained in the formal job description.

Labor unions often formalize the division of responsibility to an extreme degree. A bricklayer refuses to carry the bricks to his work area; he must wait idly by while a member of the laborer's union brings him his materials. A cashier in a restaurant stands idly by while the waitresses and busboys are overworked. A special instructor must be hired to teach trainees, even though the factory supervisors have ample time.

A college instructor refuses to take on a committee chairmanship because it is not in her contract. An office worker tells a troubled customer to wait until the supervisor returns the next day because the office worker feels he is not being paid for that work. Whatever the justification for this division of responsibilities, its effect is to limit your job experience to a narrow set of duties. As a result you get only one type of job experience, and if you suddenly become unemployed, your job search will be limited to that single type of work.

In contrast, if you eagerly accept and seek out varied experiences in your job, you are preparing yourself for several types of future employment. If you are a gas station attendant, you can suggest that if the manager ever wishes to take time off, you can take charge for the afternoon or weekend.

If you are a truck driver, you can offer and attempt to obtain additional orders for the merchandise you are delivering. If you are a supervisor in a company, you can offer to conduct training classes for new employees. If you are a factory worker, you can offer to repair the disabled machine before the repair department is called. If you are a salesperson, you can offer to substitute temporarily for the production or office supervisor who has suddenly resigned or become ill.

By taking on these new duties, you become experienced in many areas that are valuable for future jobs. And there may also be other advantages—you will be considered more valuable to your company and receive a pay increase or even a permanent promotion to a position that involves the duties for which you volunteered. Transfers to better jobs, promotions, and entirely new careers are begun in just this manner.

Maintaining pleasant relations with others

Just as important is the need to maintain friendly relations with other people, especially co-workers. Since personal referrals from friends, relatives, and acquaintances play such a large role in obtaining job leads, maintaining good relations with other people ensures that these people will be helpful in the future when you need personal assistance. Of course you need to be on good terms with your employer, but future job-seeking depends just as much on pleasant relations with your classmates, co-workers, subordinates, and family members. Some of these people will become future employers, and all of them will be in a position to offer job-lead information. Obviously, there are many advantages to maintaining friendly relations with these people, and this should be a goal in its own right.

Going on a job search

Can the Job-Club strategy be used if you are still working? Yes, but with some changes. If you have a full-time job, obviously you cannot spend the entire day every day at home making telephone calls and going to interviews.

One solution is to use any available vacation days or personal leave days. In this case, you can use the present method without making any changes and without losing any salary in your present job.

A similar solution is to use the hours after work or on weekends. If possible, try to arrange for a change in hours—even a temporary one— so that you have some free time during normal working hours to make telephone calls and to go to interviews. Perhaps you can change temporarily to a different work shift, start work later in the morning and remain there later, or work on one or both days of the weekend and thereby have one or two weekdays available.

If you are currently attending college and have some free time between classes, schedule a specified time period each day to be used exclusively for the job hunt.

If your current job schedule allows you to have some "normal" working hours free, then schedule them exclusively for job hunting.

If you are a professional or an executive, your work hours tend to be fairly flexible. If so, rearrange your workday so that you can set aside a fixed period or one or two hours each day to devote solely to the job search.

Unless your present job is intolerable, there are many advantages to seeking another job while maintaining the current job, rather than quitting. For one thing, having a continued income will let your job hunt be more extensive; it's easier to wait for the right job if your immediate financial need is not great. And if you're still employed, you can use fellow employees and other work contacts as sources for job leads. Also, you can consider preferred jobs that don't begin for several weeks or months, including government jobs (these usually require a long delay because of examinations and waiting lists) and professional or managerial positions (these usually involve a long period of consideration). While it's true that quitting a job gives you more time in which to job hunt, the many advantages of looking for work while you're still employed suggest that it's unwise to resign from a job to seek work. Rather, while on your present job you should rearrange your schedule however possible so that you get at least an hour or two each day during normal working hours for intensive job seeking.

Seeking alternative employment with your current employer

When seeking a different job while still employed, consider your current employer as one of the first possibilities for job leads. If your problem with the present job is discontent with your supervisor, inadequate pay, lack of interest about the type of work, or something else, taking a different position in the same company may be enough to overcome these difficulties. Therefore, approach your current employer just as you would contact a different employer.

Tell the employer about your qualifications for other positions and your strong desire to continue with the company, and state your desire to be considered for possible future openings, rather than awaiting an opening. The problems existing in the present job may be solved by a job in another branch office, or with a different supervisor, or with a higher level of responsibility, or in a different department with different duties, or even by a job with the same salary but greater opportunities for advancement.

Do not assume that such a transfer is not possible. Schedule a formal meeting with a company manager who has wide-ranging responsibility, and treat the meeting just as you would a formal interview with another employer. Until you have made a direct request for a change, the employer is not likely to consider you for alternative positions in preference to others.

But, once you have made a direct request, the employer may even create a position suited to your unique skills and interests. You are someone the employer knows, you are familiar with the company, and you are valuable to the company (otherwise they would not be paying you). All too often, employees leave a company for a better position when a direct request to their current employer would have caused a change within the same company.

The irony in this oversight is often exemplified by the following typical situation: Suppose that you quit a job because you desire a better position. While job seeking, you find a help-wanted ad that describes a position that seems ideal in terms of salary and duties. But when you call the listed telephone number, you discover—with some embarrassment—that the company is your former employer seeking a replacement for you. Of course, however, you feel reluctant to apply. Had you approached your employer while still employed and formally requested an increased salary and a change of duties, you probably would have gotten that better job.

To make a formal request, draw up a resume, submit open letters of recommendation, schedule a formal meeting with the supervisor, and describe your varied experience and qualifications just as if you were applying for a new position. Mention all your positive attributes. According to the personalized approach to job finding, you should build on your established personal and job experiences. Since your current employer constitutes one of the best sources of these personal and job experiences, he or she should be among the first you contact for a better position.