It’s hard to separate “How long should my job search take” from “How long WILL my job search take?” They aren’t quite the same. But they get at the same thing: time. And what’s “normal”, which each candidate wants to be.
If I can answer either question for my job search clients, who are mostly seasoned professionals, it reassures them. And job seekers usually want – as soon as they decide to start a job search – that new job right away.
By the way, the old adage of “It takes a month of search for every $10,000 you want to make”, I never found to be true, either “back in the day” or now.
Before the Great Recession of 2008-2011, one could say your search would take “a few months”. Confidence in “landing” that desired new job was high. The candidate was pretty much in charge. There were no great numbers of job hunters, just a regular flow of people deciding to make career changes, or new coming into the job market.
Then it all changed: parts of the country, like Minnesota, underwent massive layoffs for the first time. Job search became a discipline. LinkedIn was now a very big thing. Technology was starting to make an impact.
Since the recovery from that recession, the job search seems to have settled into a typical 4-6 months for first-tier managers through VP-level, and I’ve seen that “average” length hold even during the pandemic – if you do the right things.
Yes, that time totally depends on the candidate. And I’ll guarantee it’ll take even longer if you do these things:
- You do a resume-based search, instead of a networking-based one
- You base your search activity on how you FEEL, not what needs to get done each day (it’s a campaign you have to work at)
- You’re doing an on-and-off job search, letting yourself get pulled off course by house projects and the like
- You keep changing career goals, titles, direction
- You have a poor presentation and aren’t fixing it
- You’re using old job search methods that haven’t worked in years
And that’s how I answer the question to each person who asks, “How long will my job search take?”
It’s up to you.
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