How long will it take me to find a new job?

Most of the people who reach out to me are people who are looking for a job. They have either already quit their previous jobs, or they are considering moving to a new job while still in their current jobs.



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And there's one question that every single one of them asks me without fail - 'how long will it take me to find a new job?'

This question becomes more pertinent if you have already quit your previous job. You are then hoping to find a job as quickly as possible.

There are two important points here which you need to keep in mind, if you also have this question :

• When you have already quit your previous job, it takes longer to find your next job!
  (At least, that's how it will seem to you!)
• Finding a job is a full-time job!
  (This sounds cliched, but a job search is a full-time activity which requires time and effort.)

There are some common factors which determine the time taken : state of the economy, the state of hiring in your industry, the demand for your skill sets, etc.

But there are still some factors in your control which can help you shorten the time taken to find that ideal job :

• Research
• Think through and make a list of the kind of roles, the industries and the specific set of companies you would like to focus on. A lot of useful information can be gleaned from the web to help you in this exercise.
• Spend time with your resume so that it clearly positions you for the roles you would like to target. Take professional help, if required, to fine-tune your resume. (This post might help - Resumes still matter!)
• Network
• Make a list of all your friends, ex-colleagues, batch-mates, etc. and start reaching out to the them.
• Be very clear and precise about the help you need from them. People are willing to help but don't know how to, if you just tell them 'I am looking for a change, please let me know if you come across anything relevant for me'. Instead try 'Can you introduce me to person X in company Y/ head-hunter/ your connection in company Z'.
• Remember that most companies hire through internal referrals, and through their own hiring teams. While it is useful to network with head-hunting firms, they account for only a fraction of the actual hiring that actually happens. It is therefore important to network and connect with the relevant business heads in the companies that you have short-listed.
• Conversations
• Your focus should be to try meet with and have conversations with all the relevant people (head-hunters and business heads in companies and people in your direct network).
• In your conversations, do not restrict the discussion to job openings. Instead, talk about industry trends, the company's plans and talent challenges.
• Ask people for advice and inputs on career options, and you'll notice that people then get involved in your job search and try to help as best as they can.
• Invest
• As I mentioned earlier, a job search should be treated like a serious project. You will need to invest time and effort.
• Set time aside every day, and especially over weekends, to network, connect, reach out and follow up with people.
• Make it a point to maintain a calendar/ diary to keep track of all the conversations and the follow-up activities so that none of them slip between the cracks.

A typical job search, where you treat it like a serious project, can take between 4-6 months. The first 2-3 months will need to be spent in just networking and having conversations, at the end of which, relevant conversations will start emerging. These will then lead to serious options which you can then pursue to their logical conclusion.

And if you are lucky, you will land a job much sooner. But you will notice that that too happened because of your network and the conversations.

Do you have any other suggestions on shortening the time taken to land your next job, based on your own experience? Do share it herckguruprasad@gmail.com.
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