When COVID-19 spread one of the many life-altering impacts to many people was the loss of jobs. This was a catalyst that drastically changes the workforce but something this drastic does not need to happen to completely alter your career. You never know what will happen. There might be a reorganization, your company may be acquired/merged, your manager may leave and new leadership gets brought in that wants to make changes, or your companies external market might completely change. Any of these changes can impact how a company views your role and whether or not they believe they need to keep you. If that happens, you should have other options in your back pocket or at least have done some of the preparation work to get ready to find a new position.
Just because you are looking at other roles does not mean you hate your current job or are even looking to leave. There are many reasons why you should always be at least dipping your toes in the water. It helps to make sure you always have other options available. The last thing you want is to lose your job and have no idea what is out there in the market waiting for you.
Keep Other Options Available
Just like a company should constantly keep a candidate pool for their positions, an individual should keep companies “warm” to who you are and what you do. This is just good marketing to make sure that you lay the seeds for future opportunities.
No One Is Irreplaceable
One thing that many people learned during COVID is that everyone is replaceable at work. If a company needs to cut cost they will take the pain of losing your skills, institutional knowledge, and work ethic if it can save the company in the long run. You might be extremely important to what a company does, but even the CEO can be replaced. You should never feel like you are invincible. That being said, you also shouldn’t live in constant fear or paranoia about losing your job either. You should always be searching for plan B in case something were to happen and having that backup plan should help alleviate your fears because you know you have something to fall back on.
Know Your Market
Even if you love your job, you should keep checking with the outside world about how your field is changing. Maybe you need to learn now skills or technology to keep up with what the market is using. If you stay stagnant in your current role when do you look to the outside world for new opportunities, you may see what you have been doing for so long is no longer what everyone else is doing. It is important to never stop learning and never stop growing so that you keep up with your industry.
You might also see things other companies are doing and might want to start doing that in your current job. It is always helpful to see how your industry is changing so you can keep up with it for your skills but also make sure that your current team is using the best tools available to do their job.
Know Your Worth
Are you are getting paid the market rate for your role? Unsure? Why not ask the market? Any time a Recruiter reaches out about a role I ask for two things:
- Can you share the Job Description?
- Is there a Salary Range / Hourly Rate for this role that you can share?
Many times the Recruiter will be willing to share the information (if they don’t it probably isn’t worth your time anyway). The Job Description is important because then you know if the role is something you might have the skills and experience for. It is also helpful to see if the job is at your level (or lower), or if it might be a stretch role for you.
With all of that information taken into account, you can then use the salary range to get an idea of where you are in the market. If the role is similar to yours but the compensation is higher, then maybe you are currently underpaid for your role. If the role pays about the same or less, then maybe you are at or above the market. You can not know this based on one salary range but as you collect more data points you will begin to see the pattern for whether or not similar roles get paid more or less than what you are currently making.
You should also always have two different “worths” in mind. One as an employee and the other as a contractor (if that is something you would consider doing). As a contractor, you will not receive benefits and the role is usually short term so your Hourly rate as a contractor will need to be different than if the role was for an employment position at the company. You should separate these two groups of data because they will have different requirements.
Practice Practice Practice
Going through the recruiting process is a skill like everything else. If you have a great job and do not interview for any other role for years you will get rusty. Now, this might be fine if you are happy with where you are at, but if something happens then you will need to relearn that skill and it could end up costing you a better opportunity or salary because you make some mistakes along to way relearning how to interview. If you lose your job, this time spent relearning how to interview and building up a recruiting network could cost you money as well the longer you got without a job.
One way to defend yourself from the rust is to always be interviewing. Along with all the previous reasons for why you should be doing this, it is also just good practice to be doing this in a low-stakes environment. If you have a job that you enjoy then you hold more leverage. You can ask for the moon when it comes to what you are looking for in your next role and if they say no, then you still at least end up with the experience of going through the process. If they say yes, then maybe you should consider. You can be a lot more comfortable and maybe even try new things in the process and see what works and what does not. Be a scientist. Test your theories and learn what options may work down the road. With all of this being said, there are some basic things you should always do while interviewing like be respectful. Just because you might hold the leverage does not mean you should be a jerk. You should only really interview for roles that there is a chance you might consider. It is not fair to waste someone else’s time just because you want to practice your skill.
Outro
So what is the downside to be applying/interviewing all the time? The only downside is your time. But we believe knowing the market, having other options, and continuing to practice those skills are worth that time. You do not have to spend a lot of time doing these every week. But as long as you keep them up it will help you in the long run. The minimal investment now is worth the long-term benefit.
Are there other benefits when you apply to jobs that were missed? Any negatives that we might have ignored? Please feel free to share!
All opinions above are those of the writer and not of their employer(s). Nothing written above should be considered investment advice. These blog posts should be used for educational purposes only. This post is also not sponsored or endorsed by any company (unless expressly stated otherwise). For more information please read our Terms.