Over the years, employment counselors-especially those who've written books on the subject-have tried to come up with formulas to indicate how long you should expect to be out of work or, if employed, how long it will take you to find a better job. Some of the formulas are wonderfully inventive. Some are based upon a few good ideas, and incorporate a number of tangible factors sue! As salary, years of experience, market conditions, personal commitment, and the like. And there have been others that are downright silly, in my estimation.
The fact is that looking for a better job, whether as an employed person or unemployed involves so many intangible and subjective elements that no formula can be freely applied to any individual. Still, I felt it necessary to touch upon the question of how long it takes to get a job in order to help the readers recognize that any variables are involved and that one should not give up too quickly. Most important, I truly feel that if you do that recommended, you'll take considerably less time than were you to go after a better job without incorporating its advice into your overall plan.
Most formulas that have been concocted deal with le number of months it will take to find employment. Suppose these formulas result in an estimate that a certain salaried job would take, on the average, six months find. But, also suppose that one person in that salary range puts in fifty hours a week looking for a job and another person puts in only ten hours a week. Obviously, the person putting in more time and effort is likely to find better job faster than the one putting in less time and effort.
Here, too, however, there are myriad factors that light render that judgment inaccurate. An inept job seeker devoting fifty hours a week might take a lot longer than an especially sharp, knowledgeable, and experienced person putting in only a few hours a week. Add the vagaries of geography, ability to see oneself in an interview, the right resume, the size and quality of the network, and a host of other factors and you can see why formulas simply don't work.
Let's look at the factors that will really determine how long it takes you to find your better job.
If you're employed in a good job, with a good company in a solid industry, and have virtually no chance losing your job in the near future, looking for a better on will undoubtedly take a long time. The reason is simple, you're only passively looking for a job, and will find or only if it's "perfect" and handed to you on a silver plate. Many people keep their eyes open for an opportunity they would simply be too good to pass up.
Take another person who stands little chance of joining a job, but is working for a company that is running into problems, or is a takeover candidate, or is in an industry that is declining, and chances are there will b more interest in exploring new opportunities, which, b extension, will produce a better job faster.
Are you a generalist or a specialist? Your answer to this will help determine how long it takes for you to land a better job or, if between jobs, any job at all. It almost always takes longer for a specialist to find and land a new job, the level of difficulty in direct proportion to the degree of specialization. The number of openings for specialists in any field is naturally fewer than openings for generalists. Of course, specialists are usually highly paid in return for their special knowledge, but the specialist also runs the risk of falling behind as changes occur in the specialty. A data processor steeped in a certain combination of hardware and software might suddenly find that his or her expertise is approaching obsolescence. Unless that person has been keeping up-to-date all along (which is hard to do), those companies that have instituted the new system may not be available to that job seeker.
Generalists, on the other hand, while having more job opportunities available to them, are usually not paid as much as specialists. They also sometimes become so generalized in their skills and knowledge (the jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none person) that it's virtually impossible to categorize them when looking to fill a job. I've asked so many generalists, "What do you do? What is it you want?" The answer is invariably "I can do anything." lot very helpful to a personnel manager or recruiter.
Then again, generalists are the people who generally end up heading companies and corporations because of their broad knowledge of the many workings of that business.
How good-or bad-are your references? If you don't have good references, your job search will probably take longer, unless you run across a situation in which the hiring company doesn't care about your bad references, or doesn't bother to check them at all. If you're one of those people who've burned a series of bridges when leaving jobs, you've painted yourself into a corner from which it is difficult to extricate yourself.
How competitive are you? You should take the time to rate yourself in terms of competitiveness. An honest evaluation of your education, experience, knowledge, appearance, and skill at finding new and better jobs will help determine how long it will take you to succeed. If you rate high on the competitive scale, chances are you'll be hired faster than someone who rates lower.
While you're analyzing your competitiveness, also take stock of your personal characteristics. Do you tend to be sloppy in your dress and grooming? Are you a pleasant person, or does a sour face reflect a basically grouchy personality? Are you positive and enthusiastic, or do you tend to see the glass as perpetually being half empty? Companies that market a product spend huge amounts of time and money analyzing what their product looks like, whether it is appealing to the eye, and whether it sends off silent signals of being quality, a product that will enhance a consumer's life. When looking for a job, you are the product, and you should pay significant attention to what your product looks like, as well as the signals gives off.
Are you a person who is making too many demands and imposing too many conditions on the type of employment you'll accept? Have you set unrealistic restrictions on how much time you're willing to travel, or have you narrowed down the places to which you are willing relocate to a restrictive few? Many companies, particularly larger ones, expect their employees to be willing relocate if the need arises, and to take whatever travel necessary to get the job done. The more you've narrowed your willingness in these areas, the longer it will take you to get a job. Again, this might not be true if other facto override these considerations, but, in general, the most restrictions you put on jobs you'll accept, the longer your job search will take.
For many people, arbitrary salary demands rule of finding a better job. Are you realistic in the kind of mom you think you're worth and in evaluating the salaries that are generally paid in your industry or profession for people with your qualifications? If you're capable only of jobs that pay the minimum wage, you may be hired tomorrow. If you're making $40,000 and won't move for anything less than $150,000, you're not realistic and all in for a long wait. Of course, if you are employed, you can afford to sit it out and wait for a job with a high salary that comes your way. If you're unemployed and you are being unrealistic in what you will accept, you are going to over look many splendid opportunities to get back into the workplace and once again build a solid base from which to advance your career. What I'm saying is be flexible depending upon circumstances.
Have you learned how to toot your own horn in palatable way? Because you are a "product," you must sell yourself. If you are not good at this, chances are you’ll take longer to find a better job than someone who comfortable with the art and skill of selling him-or herself to a new employer. In line with this, are you going to ask (not plead) for a job, not only verbally but in your attitude and in the way you present yourself?
Finally, a major determining factor in how quickly you find a better job is how much time, effort, and dedication you are willing to put into it. Are you committed to intensive job search, or are you approaching it passively, waiting for a stroke of luck to come from the heavens, or for someone to immediately think of you when an opening occurs, even though you haven't kept in regular touch?
I think you can see why a formula for how long it will take to find a better job is just an academic exercise.
On the other side of die coin, it is possible to evaluate, in general, how long any given company might take make a hiring decision. Robert Half International commissioned an independent research survey in which vice-presidents and personnel directors were asked how long, on the average, it took for their companies to fill a position. We also asked how many people in the company, on the average, will interview a candidate once the company has decided to go to that step. The results were interesting.
They reported that it takes an average of three and a half months to fill a top-management position, two months to fill a middle-management position, and one ad a half months to fill a staff position.
In answer to the question about how many people will interview a job candidate, the respondents to the survey indicated that an average of five will interview a candidate for a top-management position, four for someone who is being considered for a middle-management position, and three people for a man or woman being considered for a staff position.
In my experience, medium and small company usually conduct fewer interviews and take less time to positions. The important point here is that it generally takes a job seeker longer to find a job than a company hired someone. The reason for this is obvious: the job seeker must first locate a number of job opportunities; through the process of applying for them; endure the interview process; attract a job offer; and then decide if it is suitable.
No matter how untenable it is to attempt to formalize the length of time it will take you to find a job there will always be people who will try to use formula and, in many cases, regret the fact that they did. I've seen this happen with people who decide to seek a better job and quit their current employment before starting the search. They've figured it all out with one formula or another and determined, let's say, that they will find that new and better job within 1.75 months. When the four month of unemployment rolls around, they begin to think the wisdom of their actions.
How quickly you find another job will be determined almost exclusively by you, not by outside factors.
