Before I moved full time into recruiting I was a career counselor and coach. Basically instead of working with companies to find candidates, I worked with candidates to find companies. I’ve loved making the switch, but I do miss coaching. The start of a new year tends to be a big time for job searches, so check back over the next few weeks as I put my career coach hat back on with a series I’ve been working on for candidates.
A few years ago I was sitting in a routine weekly update meeting. I ran through some revenue figures for my department and my boss responded with “that’s IT?”. Almost instantly I felt my cheeks go red, and I sank a little lower in my chair. On one hand, he had a point, we were behind, very behind, on the projections we’d outlined for Q1. On the other, this wasn’t new information. Less than 24 hours before we’d talked privately about the numbers and discussed a plan moving forward. He’d been fairly level headed about it when we’d talked the day before, so his public frustration was the cherry on top of a bad week, and I was furious. I stormed back to my desk, searched my email for the most recent copy of my resume, and fired it off to the first 10 jobs I found on Indeed. After 30 minutes or so I’d calmed down, and went back to work. I’m leaving, I told myself, I’m officially looking now, and I’m outta here.
I’ve been in the career coaching and recruiting world for almost 10 years now, and that’s how about 80% of the job searches I see begin, just like mine, full of righteous anger and indignation. People stroll out of the office that night thinking “ha, I’ll show them, I’m really done this time.” And they might keep that energy and that anger for a few days, or weeks, and might fire off a few more rounds of easy applies on LinkedIn or Indeed. And then whatever the thing was that triggered their job search fades into the background, along with the immediate desire to leave. I should know, just like so many of my clients I repeated that cycle for almost two years.
I don’t see many of these job searches succeed - because the thing fueling them is anger. Anger at a particular person or situation that doesn’t feel fair, or anger at feeling stuck in a project or position that doesn’t really serve you. That anger though, doesn’t sustain a job search. Not the right kind of job search. Anger makes you feel justified in leaving your job, but it’s a pretty inconsistent feeling, and consistency is everything.
Even the not so drastic emotions derail a job search. We’re all emotionally attached to and invested in our jobs in some way. You might not love the work, but you probably do like the people, or value the security, or just appreciate the routine and predictability. It’s the whole “devil you know” argument. There are lots of things that make the prospect of leaving a job an emotionally fraught endeavor. It’s why I see so many candidates who are “totally ready” to make a jump languishing in their jobs 12-18 months after I first talk to them. The anger that fueled the initial search comes and goes, and the more positive emotions connected to their job stick around.
That’s usually where coaching someone through a job search starts - accepting that finding a new role isn’t personal, and detaching the new job you hope to find from the one you no longer like. A job search requires consistent sustained action, not the kind you get when you let your feelings spin your job search up and down. Once you’ve committed to leaving, we aren’t going to talk about how you feel about your current job any more - in the most unfortunately blunt way, it doesn’t matter. Changing your job means coming up with a plan. A plan isn’t going to be dictated by the thing that made you mad today, and a plan commits you to constant activity, even when you’d rather be doing something else, or your emotions about your job (good or bad) kick in. That’s why a career counselor or coach is such a good idea for many job seekers, it’s our job to hold you accountable.
Of course that’s harder than it sounds, it’s hard NOT to have feelings about a place you spend 40 or more hours a week. It’s a complete mindset shift . You are a business of one and you have to protect that business. You have talents and skills that make you a valuable part of any team, and your job is to find the best place to put those skills to use. There is nothing personal about that decision, and there is nothing selfish about prioritizing your professional growth.
Over the next few weeks I’m going to dig in more on when it’s time to make a plan for your next role, how to formulate a plan that makes sense, and how to turn your plan into action.