One of the most overlooked strategies for accelerating your career is continuous interviewing.
We do not mean you need to have a new interview every week, unless of course you are in an active job search. However, you need to network, practice your interviewing skills, and keep an open eye for that next career accelerating opportunity.
Why Should I Interview Regularly?
If you have a continuous interviewing mindset, then you will form habits that will naturally turn into meaningful interviews and those interviews will turn into new job opportunities that should help you grow and help you work towards achieving your goals.
💡 Pro Tip: You should have a story prepared to explain why you are interviewing. You don’t need to hate your job to look around for a better role. Most people will understand this perspective and if you can share your goals and why you are interested in evaluating new opportunities most recruiters and hiring managers will see that behavior as positive.
There are a few other secondary benefits as well.
Additional Benefits
First, you will know your market value. By having conversations with recruiters and hiring managers you know where you stand in the marketplace and how much you could earn if you ever decided to leave your current role.
💡 Pro Tip: Remember you cannot rely on your current company to promote you or increase your compensation.
Secondly, by consistently evaluating new roles you will have the ability to pivot into a new role quicker should the need arise. If you see signs of financial distress in your company, you have been overlooked for promotions even though you truly know you should have been selected, you do not seem to be progressing towards achieving your goals, or any other reason, then you need to be able to pivot quickly to a new role or company.
Third, is simply having more joy. If you know your skill set and experience are valued in the market, then there is some form of emotional satisfaction that comes from that knowledge. If you see that your skill set is in decline, then it may be time to reevaluate your goals and focus on skills development.
Finally, you might find that perfect job you have always wanted. The job that helps you be a better person, that gives you everything you ever wanted, that makes you complete as a person is out there, but you usually need to seek out those roles. We know the odds are small, but what if?
If you see the benefits of continuous interviewing, then what strategies can you use?
Recruiters
Talk to recruiters when they reach out.
💡 Pro Tip: Be open and honest about where you are and what you are looking for. This is why you need to understand your goals. It is impossible for someone to help you if you do not know what you want yourself.
Talking to recruiters gives you an opportunity to ask:
· What am I worth in the market?
· Does the recruiter see people with my skill set getting better jobs than I have now?
· Is there a job out there that aligns more with helping me develop the skill sets I need to accelerate my career?
The recruiter may, and often time does, ask if you still want to interview for the new opportunity even if you told them you are happy in your current role. This is especially true for senior roles where there are less qualified candidates.
Keep an active search for new open roles on LinkedIn and on targeted company career websites that match your skill set. You can automate these searches to send you back new postings on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
💡 Pro Tip: Keep an active search going for your company. See what roles they are posting so you can understand where the internal hiring dollars are going while also understanding the strategy of the company. Keep an eye out for your job getting posted too!!
Stretch Roles
Apply to roles that are a little outside of your comfort zone or experience level. Many times hiring managers are looking to develop new talent that will stay with the team for a while.
Conclusion
If you are honest with yourself, the recruiters, and hiring managers about your goals for evaluating new opportunities eventually you will find the conversations result in better opportunities for you to accelerate you career.
You may find you are very happy where you are today, but by knowing the marketplace and possible options you have then you are making an informed decision instead of just treading water like so many other people do today.
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