Preemptive Strike

April 14, 2011 7:10 AM

I have sixth months until I need to look for another job. Outside of keeping my resume and LinkedIn profile up to date, what things can I do in the meanwhile to strengthen my position with recruiters and potential employers?

I am working on a large I.T. project as a project manager. The project will go-live in 6 months. I am leaving on my own accord after the project is finished. In the meanwhile what can I do to improve the probability of finding an awesome job with minimal pain. Read certain books? Start a blog? Volunteer? Take up the violin? Hire of resume expert? Buy a nice tie?

posted by jasondigitized to Work & Money (3 answers total)

Starting to look now would help. It will give you time to get into the groove, make contacts, and avoid a situation where you need to take anything that comes along. If you are up front and tell them you aren't available until your project is over, that could work in your favor, as well.

And something really great might come along that you rethink your 6 month plan.

As it is, 6 months puts you in a crunch time for budgets, summer hangovers, and so forth, and might not be the best environment looking for a job.

Networking now will be important, too. staying in touch with business contacts, letting them know you'll be coming available in 6 months, chatting about what you're doing and how good things are going all should put some thoughts in the back of their minds if something comes up where they know they'll be needing someone soon.

Seminars/conferences, etc are all good ideas to get your face out there, as well.
posted by rich at 8:07 AM on April 14, 2011

Network Network Network. This is by far the best job hunting method and the best use of your time over the next 6 months.

Go to events, lunches, round-tables, meet & greets etc. Join groups on Linkedin. Identify companies you'd like to work for and find contacts in that company you can talk to about what opportunities they know of. Ask them for more intro's to the groups or departments you're interested in.
posted by Long Way To Go at 8:58 AM on April 14, 2011

Networking in person is awesome, but if that's too expensive, network online. Volunteer with an open source project (I know that GNOME, the Tor Project, and Linaro could probably use your skills -- also look at OpenHatch).

Submit talks to conferences (Lanyrd can help you find them).

See whether you want to get a project management certificate like the PMP while you have some time now (depending on what kinds of places you want to work).

Ask friends, especially friends in your target city, if they can recommend a recruiter. Make contact and have the initial interview with the recruiter ahead of time, so then you can ping him/her when you're really ready for companies to start the hiring process.
posted by brainwane at 12:33 PM on April 14, 2011