Ask-a-Career-Coach: What Do You Do While You’re Waiting?

Contributed by Caroline Ceniza-Levine of SixFigureStart

A lot of the job search is waiting:  drop your résumé and wait for the interview; attend the interview and wait for the decision; attend the second interview and wait for more interviews or the offer.  Many jobseekers ask how long to wait before checking in and how otherwise to maximize the waiting time.

In short, you maximize the waiting time by moving on.  You work on several job search leads concurrently so that, while you are waiting for one, another is invariably moving.  Stopping and starting takes a lot more energy and is far less efficient than moving along systematically.  You can only move systematically when you have multiple leads in play.

This is also true when you are currently employed and waiting for that promotion or raise to materialize.  Your current employer is but one option – see what else is out there.  Keeping your eye on the market enables you to see whether you are compensated fairly.  Having other targets in play enables you to have options when you negotiate and therefore negotiate better.  Sometimes seeing what is out there enables you to confirm that what you have now is indeed best for you, which will comfort you.

Juggling multiple search targets requires organization, planning, but mostly a mindset shift.  You are not at the mercy of the market.  You have the power to create more leads that create more opportunities that effectively decrease the overall waiting time.  Conversely, this means that when your job search or career has stalled you are not doing enough, and you can’t blame the market.  Stop ceding control of your job search to waiting for other people.  Move on, and have people come after you instead.

Caroline Ceniza-Levine is co-founder of SixFigureStart, a career coaching firm comprised exclusively of former Fortune 500 recruiters. Prior to launching SixFigureStart, Caroline recruited for Accenture, Booz Allen, Citigroup, Disney ABC, Oliver Wyman, Time Inc, TV Guide and others.  You can reach Caroline at caroline@sixfigurestart.com.