Some time ago, a website emerged called CareerRealism, whose self-proclaimed mantra is, “Because EVERY Job is Temporary.” It is with this understanding that CareerRealism’s line-up of well-known career experts pen articles on virtually every facet of the hiring process and related topics. The articles hosted by CareerRealism and its mantra seem to evoke the idea that this isn’t your dad’s job search.
Relatively bygone are the days of spending your entire career with the company that first hired you. In short, we seem to be headed into a period of job transiency—where our eyes are permanently fixed on the horizon as we are perpetually in search for that next, great employment opportunity. Although CareerRealism’s mantra may not encompass every job seeker, it does accurately express a phenomenon which has gained momentum. In particular, it articulates a mentality which has, in some part, been broadly embraced by Millennials. However, CareerRealism’s mantra and this emerging phenomenon of the 24/7 job seeker raise an important practical question, “How does the 24/7 job seeker search for jobs at work?” Which begs the further question, “Should the 24/7 job seeker, despite his or her mentality, search for other employment opportunities while ‘on the job’?”
In response to the first question, Elizabeth Garzone, writing for The Wall Street Journal suggests that job seekers use new social networking tools—such as LinkedIn—to look for jobs on the sly. Employees who use such tools as part of their job, says Garzone, can secretly keep an eye out for vacancies, while others can thoroughly update their profile and, while not expressly looking for a job, create a profile that sends signals to recruiters that they are looking. Garzone uses a job seeker name John Burke as an example. Burke, says Garzone, “updated his LinkedIn profile with a new executive summary and up-to-date bullet points highlighting his recent accomplishments.” His goal? Burke was stealthily searching for a new job, “hoping the changes would be enough of a signal to recruiters that he was serious about making a change.” In addition to this, Garzone suggests that many recruiters will do what they can to accommodate your schedule, and are willing to schedule interviews before or after your workday ends.
Naturally, however, not every job seeker will take such benign measures to look for a job. Some will, no doubt, riskily spend hours searching for work while on the clock. Leading us to the second questions, “Should the 24/7 job seeker search for other employment opportunities while ‘on the job’”? The answer to this question can be succinctly summed up into another question, “How much do you want to keep your current job?”
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