The Summertime Itch
Let me know if any of this sounds like you…
Right around the holidays and again now that the weather is finally starting to get nice, you are starting to get frustrated at work. You are bored! Fed up to be doing the same thing day in and day out without any opportunity to improve your skills and seemingly no way to advance your career. The sun is shining and that makes the shortcomings of your current job stand out even more! How am I ever going to make it through another day here?
Thoughts start going through your head that maybe you should take a bit of a break this summer, find a contract job and focus on finding a new full-time position once the summer is over. At night, you begin hitting the apply button to every job on LinkedIn that you find interesting whether you are actually qualified or not. These are all impulsive reactions and I am here to tell you to STOP!
Take a breath. Call a “great” recruiter that you can trust to help you to put your current situation into perspective and map out the next best steps for your career.
Quitting for a contract job no matter how bad your current situation is almost always a bad idea. There is no guarantee with contract positions. The contract could run for a year, 6 months, or a month. It could also end after the first day or week! Contracting isn’t a bad thing, but becoming a professional contractor takes a well thought out plan. If you choose the contract route there are a lot of factors to take into consideration. What happens once your contract is drawing to a close? Are you the type of person who can manage the hustle of finishing up your current project work AND conduct a new search for the next contract assignment? Can you afford to go without benefits or pay your own benefits? If you leave a full-time job out to take a contract for the wrong reason, you might find that it didn’t offer you that needed breath of fresh air…you could end up making your situation significantly worse.
Before you start applying for every job you see you also need to put in some thought as to how this will affect you. Does it benefit you to be in every company database? No, it will actually hurt unless you are applying for a job that you are truly qualified for. The reason it hurts is that you are not going to get that first job you applied for out of desperation, and once your dream job in your dream company does open up, you’ve diminished your chances to successfully land that job because your resume is in their database and you are starting off the process with the client already questioning if you really know what you are looking for. I would recommend using your network first. See if any of your contacts can help before putting your resume into the black hole, and call a trusted or recommended recruiter.
This is where MarketSearch comes in. We are here to help. Use us as a resource. We can help guide you and hopefully assist with securing the right full-time position for this point in your career.
At times, it will feel like the process is taking too long and when you get that feeling call and we can help to “talk you off the ledge”. In most cases, finding a new job doesn’t happen overnight, but when you do land your dream job, it will have been well worth the wait!
The smartest thing to do is enjoy the summer! Call MarketSearch to begin to map out what the perfect next step in your career is and together we can put a game-plan together. Once you have done all of this and realize that there is a light at the end of the tunnel then you can start to take those deep breaths and maybe even enjoy some much-needed beach time. Don’t forget the sunblock!
Talk to you soon!
