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One job to another: how to pursue a move, keep boss happy

Posted on 18. Apr, 2005 by Bill in Employment News

One job to another: how to pursue a move, keep boss happy

If statistics are true, more than half of U.S. employees dread dragging themselves out of bed each morning and making their way to work.

And more than a few of these unhappy workers make a resolution each new year to improve their career, which often means looking for a new job.

Millions of these job seekers conduct their search while gainfully employed. The key is to keep the search discreet while maintaining job performance.

“You are the CEO of your own life,” said Jeff Taylor, founder and CEO of Monster.com, an online job site that gets 3.5 million visitors a day. “What used to be considered loyalty now is considered stuck in a job.”

Taylor calls it a “generational change,” noting younger workers hold an average of nine jobs by age 32.

The average tenure at a company in the years 1950 to 1960 was 23 years; in 1996 that tenure was down to 3.5 years, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

While the 1996 numbers are the most recent data available, workers are on the move, Labor officials say.
Look before you leap

“A lot of times, people get frustrated to the point that they quit their jobs before they have something else to move on to,” said Dan Barcheski, president of the Cascade-based Axios Inc., which provides professional recruiting and staffing.

“People need to know, they need to stay employed.”

Barcheski said most employers he deals with put heavy stock in finding workers who are already employed full time.

“Anything you can do to show you are a go-getter, that you have initiative” is an asset for both hourly and salaried workers, Barcheski said.

Conducting a job search from your work cubicle conjures images of covert e-mails and hushed phone conversations.

This approach, he says, is not advisable.

“You have to be fair to your current employer,” Barcheski said. “Do your searching on breaks and on your lunch hour.”

Barcheski’s advice makes sense for anybody trying to find a job without alienating their present employer.

Professional recruiters can help by doing much of the legwork, but job seekers still need to field phone calls, copy resumes and eventually go to an interview.

Most experts advise that workers do their best to compartmentalize their job search and their job.

It is important to maintain job performance because you may eventually be asking your boss for a reference letter.
Information revolution

As with other pursuits, finding a new job has been simplified with the advent of cellular phones and the Internet.

A personal cell phone can prove a valuable daytime phone number, and workers can get messages from prospective employers and also step out of the office to make necessary contacts.

A separate e-mail account on a service such as Hotmail or Yahoo! is free and easy to set-up, allowing even the most novice computer user to bypass a business-related account.

Business accounts are subject to monitoring by company brass, after all.

Hundreds of sites such as Monster.com are on the Web, offering job search services, resume posting and contact information for those looking to hire.

Taylor, Monster.com’s CEO, touts several services on his company site that allows job seekers to maintain a degree of anonymity.

One option blocks out names and addresses on resumes, which is useful if your boss happens upon the site. Instead, interested parties are directed to contact Monster.com, which puts the prospective employer in touch with the job seeker.

Another option is using a job search agent.

Here’s how it works: Job seekers enter the qualities of their ideal job on the Web site. If there is not an immediate match, the site continues to search jobs as they are posted, and alerts the worker when a match occurs.

It could take six hours or six months, but this “set it and forget it” option is attractive to those who are looking to upgrade their career, but are not on a fixed timetable.

In many ways, the service mirrors what traditional human-based recruiting firms do.

Similar services are offered by other major Internet-based job sites.

The services, Taylor notes, have helped transform the job search process.

“It is really a marketplace, a network of buyers and sellers,” he said. “It completely turns the table… If a company shows interest, you can call them up and say, ‘I’m calling you back, because you showed an interest in me.’”

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Tags: Employment News