Looking for a new a job is a full-time job in itself. It can be hard finding the time (and the energy) to carry on a successful job hunt when you have a full-time job already. In an ideal world your career development routine should work seamlessly with your job hunting routine, the difficult part is fitting it in around your regular full-time job.
Your first decisions should be how many hours a week you want to dedicate to the finding a new job and what you want to achieve in this time.
1. Work out how much time to can dedicate to finding a job and set yourself a target.
How you manage your time is important. You should be dedicating a set number of hours to your career development each week. If finding a new job is a priority for you. Then it follows that finding the time to look for the job should also be a priority.
2. Work out you want to achieve in the time you have set aside.
It is assumed that you will only have a limited amount of time to dedicate to career development and job hunting, therefore, it is vital that you are clear about WHAT you want to achieve in the time you have set aside. Have measurable goals like a “job application a week” which is then broken down into action points.
Write a to-do list of the steps you will need to achieve your goal. Then schedule these into the time you have allocated.
3. Integrate your Job Hunting into your regular Career Development Routine
Once these decisions are made you can then integrate your job hunting into your regular routine (and if you don’t have a regular Career Development Routine now is the time to start). Make it easier by:
- breaking up your allocated time into specific tasks.e.g. 30 minutes on a Monday evening to review job websites/search engines.
- including your career development and job hunting goals in your end of the week review – review and adjust your goals – don’t just postpone.
- taking control of your task list – make it manageable.
- using career development worksheets and inserts to help manage your time.
- reading this blog.