How to Maintain Your Life Balance In The Midst of Job Search or Career Change

So you're job searching or seeking out a new career direction ... how do you squeeze those activities into your already busy life?

Here are some tips that might help:

• Review your schedule with an objective eye before you begin your job search or career exploration. Pinpoint how much - if any - free time you now have in your schedule.
• Decide how much time you want to dedicate to your search or exploration daily, weekly, or monthy. Be precise. How many minutes or hours will do you need to spend to get the results you want in your preferred timeframe?
• Compare your desired time allotment with your schedule. Will your current schedule accomodate your search/exploration plans?
• Schedule your job search or career change activities into your planner - don't just assume they'll fit in somewhere.
• Consider temporarily suspending other activities if your schedule is too tight to add in your search or career exploration. What hobbies, interests, affiliations, or activities can you reduce? What chores, errands, or tasks can you delegate or outsource?
• Communicate your intention and schedule changes to all those impacted by your decisions. Be clear with those around you (family, friends, colleagues, partners, associates, peers) about how your schedule will change, when the change will go into affect, how long it will last, and why you are making this temporary adjustment.
• Let those who are closest to you know how this schedule change can positively impact your relationship and life. Give the most detail and information to those who mean the most to you. Engage their support and agreement by helping them understand why this search or exploration is vital to you both.
• Put firm boundaries around your job search or career change activities. Don't allow routine things to interrupt your search. Define in advance what kinds of things you would be willing to allow yourself to be interrupted for (family emergencies, urgent phone calls, calls from prospective employers, etc.) and if necessary negotiate this with your significant other/family members.
• Create SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-focused) goals for each search or exploration session. Break your action plan (you do have a job search or career change action plan, don't you?) into doable steps and schedule specific tasks into specific time slots.
• Aim for quality rather than quantity. Avoid shotgun job searching and career exploration. Focus intently and complete the right activities at the right time rather than trying to do everything all at once. Recognize that your career will always suffer if you avoid best practices and rely instead on those actions you are most comfortable and familiar with.
• Make your search/exploration time as productive as possible. Set clear goals, focus on and achieve them, and evaluate what is and isn't working for you on a weekly basis.
• Avoid activities that will pull you off track. Most job seekers allow themselves to get pulled into too much Internet research and end up getting too few resumes out the door. If you are easily seduced by Internet research or online job boards, then set a timer and make yourself stop when the alarm goes off.
• Consider using job search or goal software to keep yourself on track. Elsewhere in this blog I have noted several job search software products that can help keep your search on schedule. Goal software can accomplish some - though not all - of the same tasks. Or, set up task lists in Word or Outlook. It matters less how you do this than that you get it done. Play to your preferences and make your planner/organizational system work for you. If you don't have an organizational system in place, that's what you'll need to do first.

Don't expect your job search to fit into your life with little adaptation. By applying a little creativity and patience to your time management process, you can squeeze in the job search and career exploration activities that will enable you to make the shift you need to make.

Evaluating Job Opportunities

Once job offers begin to roll in, you'll need help trying to decide which position is the right next step for you. After all, this is an important decision, and you don't want to accept an offer, start back to work, and find out later that you made a terrible mistake. So what can you do?

Ask yourself these questions as you evaluate whether an employer or position is a good match for you:

• Does the organization’s business or activity match your own interests and beliefs?
• How will the size of the organization affect you?
• Do you want to work for a relatively new organization or one that is well established?
• Does it make a difference to you or your future if the company is private or public?
• Is the organization in an industry with favorable long-term prospects?
• Will you be satisfied with the nature of this position for the foreseeable future?
• Does the position offer you the level of challenge, variety, and authority you were seeking?
• Are career advancement and professional development opportunities available?
• How do you feel about the company's location and your commute route?
• Does the work match your interests and make good use of your skills?
• Are you comfortable with the hours?
• Will the salary and benefits offered meet you and your family's needs for the foreseeable future?

Although there is much, much more to the process of evaluating a job offer, these important questions will help you leverage the offer into a brighter future for you and your loved ones.

There are three ingredients in the good life: learning, earning and yearning.

~ Christopher Morley

Learning, earning, and yearning ... how can you weave all three of these key life ingredients together and actually make a living doing something you love?

The process - and it is unquestionably a process - begins with you. With self-knowledge, to be exact. To create or find work that matches you like a glove, you must be in touch with some key things about yourself:

• Your values


• Your skills


• Your passions and interests


• Your gifts, talents, and abilities

To help you gain awareness of these critical aspects of yourself, try out these simple but highly effective journaling exercises:

Career journaling exercises

Why Do Career Values Matter?

Hmmm ... or do they? Well they do, and here's why:

Suite 101 Article: Why Do Career Values Matter?