Navigate and support a long job search with these 6 tips

A wooden path on top of a water with text overlay 6 tips for a long job search, when change isn't speedy by Rikki Goldenberg, executive leadership coach and career coach

If you’ve been on the job search as a seasoned professional, you know that it rarely happens overnight.

In fact, Indeed notes that in July 2024 the median length of time was 20.6 weeks, so about five months.

That’s almost half a year! And it doesn’t include the time it takes to decide to look for a new role before you even opt to update your resume and begin applications.

Sure, there are the times that you get contacted by a former employer or colleague with the perfect role for you - but those stories are few and far between - especially as you get more senior.

It can take even longer to find a new job if you’re navigating a career pivot, or, if you’ve gotten clearer on the type of work that you want to do. We won’t take just anything!

Most of the folks I partner with are seasoned professionals who have established wonderful careers. But they established careers that led them along from one step to the next. And now, after 15+ years of working, they’re looking around and asking, “wait, is this how I want to spend my time?!”

Whether it’s because they’re relocating, partnering, unpartnering, starting a family, having a family, caregiving for aging parents, exiting a successful unicorn start-up, preparing for an IPO, managing a merger or acquisition, tired of the seventh reorg this year… there are moments that we focus on what WE want, versus what comes to us.

Spoiler: If you want help with this type of work, I partner with 3 people at a time do dive deep into the mess. Set up a discovery call to learn more and see if we’re a fit!

The downside of being a seasoned professional with fantastic experience alongside incredible awareness of what you want: the search takes much longer. There are less available roles, organizations are pickier about culture fit, and, you’re more selective about where, with whom and on what you want to work on!

So, read on for 6 tips to weather the storm that is navigating a long job search.

  1. Invite joy - because you’re running an extended marathon rather than short sprints, you need to take time and planned effort to invite in and create space for the things that will help you run this marathon. That may look like finding the types of rest that work for you, making time to work out, spending time with friends, getting a massage, going to therapy, being in nature, reading fun fiction books, watching heady documentaries, two-minute dance parties… whatever it is, pay attention to the things that help you feel good, happy, and loved. It will assist your brain as we move forward!

  2. Build in checkpoints - it was Einstein who said “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” It’s incredibly important to create guardrails and stagegates around your search. This helps you ensure that you’re checking in with yourself and pivoting as needed. That may look like: I’ll spend three more months applying cold and with referrals with this resume and if I don’t get any bites, I’ll hire a resume writer. Or, I’m only going for my top tier companies, but if I don’t have any significant movement by a specific date, I’ll start applying to a wider net. It could appear as, I’ll say no to any freelance or contract work unless I have no movement by March and want to build additional runway. Being clear about your milestones, checkpoints, experiments will also help when you’re feeling frustrated. You can tell yourself, yes, no bites yet, but I gave myself two more months to try with this resume - what else can I do to increase applications to run this experiment more effectively?!

  3. Connect with other job hunters - Never Search Alone talks about Job Search Councils - basically a group of people who want to talk about their search, get feedback on their fit for roles and how they’re approaching it. You could always join one of their councils, or, you can simply make sure you’re reaching out to people who are on the hunt to learn more about what’s working, what’s not working, and have some space for commiseration. Just watch out for an extended gripe sesh that doesn’t feel good! Who knows, you may be able to make an introduction or connection for someone else, which will feel incredible!

  4. Seek out meaningful feedback - one of the most frustrating components of a job search is the lack of (meaningful) feedback. Whether you get a canned response of “another candidate was a better fit / further in the pipeline / had this specific experience we never listed in the job posting….” It’s incredibly difficult to receive feedback that can be implemented for future rounds with other companies. Even for that company the feedback may be useless because it’s tied to a specific role, team, or manager! So, take time to connect with people who can give you unbiased feedback. That could be a recruiter in your area of expertise telling you why your resume and LinkedIn isn’t working, a specific coach for resumes, an interview coach, an ex-colleague who’s hiring all the time for the types of roles you’re going for, someone from ADPlist or another mentor network, there’s plenty of folks out there!

  5. Celebrate effort versus outcomes - so we didn’t get the callback, or we got the cold response. Or we made it to the final round but didn’t land the gig. These are feel… terrible. Especially if we’re only focusing on outcomes for celebration and acknowledgment. It’s essential to insert and create opportunities to celebrate the effort and work you’re doing, versus what happens. For example: you applied to 10 places? Celebrate! Who cares what happens! You reached out to 20 people for informational interviews? Incredible! So what if you need to bump them 3 more times before they respond! You made it to the final round? We’re getting ice cream! We cannot control who else was in that final round, or, if there was a surprise reorg / hiring freeze at the company! Allow yourself to celebrate all of the hard work you’re doing.

  6. Keep the funnel going - this is one of the biggest mistakes I see with seasoned folks. They will get into first or second rounds with companies and stop any outreach or applications until they “see the process through.” But when the outcomes fall flat, they’re devastated and feel like they have to restart from scratch. Don’t be like them! Learn from them! Instead, while you’re waiting to hear back, go ahead an apply to more places, or set up more chats. You can always bow out or delay an interview if you’re getting things moving other places. This one is incredibly hard to do when your brain is split between actively interviewing and pipeline filling but it’s an incredible mental mindset supporter to ensure you feel that you have an abundance of opportunities, rather than gripping tightly to each meeting with a scarcity mindset.



What would you add?

I want to know what’s worked for you to keep things going during a longer job search.

Want to partner?

Enjoy the marathon. You’re doing great.

Next
Next

Perfectionism is a super power