Summer of Change

This will undoubtedly be a summer of change among carpool members. All of us have taken stock of our current professional situations and wondered if the grass might be greener somewhere else. Chesty has commented for years that the best time to find a job is when you already have one. What I believe he means is that when there is no pressure to find a job, you can be more selective. Set your compensation requirements high and see if you can find an opportunity that can meet them. The art of this approach is to periodically search the opportunity market for the right job. Besides job search engines, expanding your social and professional network can prove to be invaluable to this approach. I would call this a passive job search technique. Your resume is updated, but you are not forwarding it to headhunters and not posting it on on-line job search engines. But what if you don't have the luxury of time...i.e. you are so upset at your current situation, you absolutely want out, but you want to make sure you don't jeopardize your current income by tipping off your employer of your pending departure. If this is the case, there are a few options. First, you can pick up the intensity of the passive job search, lowering your requirements from desired to acceptable. You can also forward your updated resume to trusted agents (friends, carpool members, former employers) and see if they know of any potential opportunities. Finally, there is the "anonymous resume" approach, where you post your resume under a pseudonym or without a name completely. This way, your identity may be kept secret from your current employer, but you are still aggressively job hunting. It may be best to provide any inquiries with your correct information, in order to maintain a perception of full disclosure. Of course, if you are out of work or have given notice...only one rule applies...get a job!