Why You Should Start Your Job Search While You’re Already Employed

Employed Job SearchStarting to look elsewhere after a few years of working at a company is not unusual, especially when you’ve been stuck in your position for a while with no foreseeable change. However, most people make the mistake of waiting until they lose their current job before starting to look for a new job.

While it is important to keep your focus on doing your present work and doing it to the best of your ability, starting a job search while still employed has a number of advantages over waiting until you lose your current job.

Having a job puts you in a position of strength

Every employer wants to have the best of the best in their company; this is why there is an unspoken bias that employers have in favor of applicants who currently have a job. It’s because it shows that you’re valuable and in demand, and that’s why you have a job.

Being employed puts you in a better position to negotiate a better offer because your skills and experience won’t be questioned as much as an applicant who doesn’t currently have a job.

Having a job doesn’t add pressure

The biggest concern of unemployed job seekers is their budget. Not everyone has a steady source of income, but employed job seekers don’t need to worry about this as much. Thus, they have fewer things to worry about in their job search. Being employed also means less pressure to get a job quickly because you always have your current job as a fallback.

Having a job makes your network active

Another advantage of being employed is that your network is actively thinking of you due to the regular interaction with them through your work. This interaction gives you a heads-up on jobs that they know about. However, in order to keep your search confidential, you need to make sure that you only approach people you really trust.

While starting a job search when you’re still employed does have its benefits, it’s important to consider whether the issues causing you to want to leave your job will be resolved by getting a new job. If you’ve truly thought about it and the answer is “yes,” then there’s no better time than now to start looking.  

Read 6032 times
Alan Carniol

Alan is the creator of Interview Success Formula, a training program that has helped more than 80,000 job seekers to ace their interviews and land the jobs they deserve. Interviewers love asking curveball questions to weed out job seekers. But the truth is, most of these questions are asking about a few key areas. Learn more about how to outsmart tough interviewers by watching this video.