As you begin searching for jobs, at some point, you're bound to wonder, how long is this going to take? Unfortunately, there's no simple answer, but there are some general guidelines and interesting statistics that can help you create a more realistic timeline. There are four things you should know. First, job searching takes a lot of time. Second, there is a trade-off between how long you spend on your search and how good the outcome is. Third, you can shorten the process by doing your career change in two steps. Fourth, things always take longer than you think they will. Let's look at each of these in more detail. First, job searching can be a full-time job, and I meet people all the time who are approaching it this way. If you have savings and you're tired of whatever job you're doing, you could quit your job and spend all your time job searching until you line up your next opportunity. However, I typically don't recommend this in part because most people's life satisfaction goes down the longer they're unemployed while their levels of stress and anxiety rise. If you're able to keep working full-time or, even better, part-time while you search for jobs, that's probably the best route. The challenge then is making time for the job search process. How much time you spend each week depends on a lot of factors, including whether and how much you're working, family and other commitments outside of work, and honestly your motivation, focus, and your skill at job searching. Some people who are working full-time spend three hours a week and others spend 15 hours a week. Given your situation, how long are you planning to spend on your job search each week? The good news is, you get to decide how much time you spend. Within the constraints of your circumstances, it really is up to you. But I do encourage you to at least pick a target number of hours per week and put some time in your calendar. A second thing to know is there's a trade-off between how long you search for jobs and how good the outcome is. I wish I could tell you there's some trick to doing it faster, but the simple reality is that it takes a long time to get to know a new professional space well enough to figure out what the options are and then learn which of those options are a good fit. That's not to mention building your network and the actual application process and interview rounds which can sometimes take months. Keep in mind that you could walk into a number of restaurants or retail shops and some large companies and have an entry-level job tomorrow. But I'm assuming you're more specialized and looking for a higher salary. So better result, more time. A third consideration is that you might want to make your career change in two steps, which could shorten your job search quite a bit. Every job has a role or job title and a field which are distinct things. For example, I work as a professor or teacher in higher education. The job title is my role or what I do, teacher or professor, and the field is my industry, or where I do it, in this case, higher education. Imagine I'm working as a professor at a university, like I am, but I want to become a hiring manager for a tech company like Apple. If this is what I wanted, I would be changing both my role and my field, which is a much harder transition than changing just my role or just my field. I might decide that even though being a hiring manager is my calling, it's going to be too challenging to get to an HR job at Apple right away. This is because I wouldn't be starting with much relevant experience because I'm a teacher in higher ed and I want to be a hiring manager in tech. An alternative approach would be to make this career transition in two steps by first changing only my title or field and then changing the other. In this imaginary example, I could get a teaching job at a large company by leading trainings. It's called corporate learning and development. Or I could try for a recruiting job at a university where I already have experience. These would both be career changes, but by keeping either my role or the field constant, I have more relevant experience and will get a job much more easily. Then later, after working in my new job for a year or several years, I could transition to my dream job as a hiring manager at Apple. If you decide to make your career change in two steps instead of one, you can sometimes shorten your timeline significantly. So keep this option in mind. The fourth thing to know is that things take longer than you think they're going to even when you know that things take longer than you think they're going to. Please, please, please build in buffers. Meaning add 20, or 50, or 100 percent to how long you think it's going to take to find and get your next job. I actually tell my students and coaching clients that things take 10 times longer than we think they're going to, but I didn't want to discourage you. Recent unemployment reports from the Department of Labor show that about 1/3 of job seekers spend less than five weeks looking for a job before they get one, about a quarter spend 1-3 months, 12 percent spend 3-6 months, and nearly 1/3 spend over six months job searching. These numbers are imperfect and they change often, depending on the economy and labor markets. So don't take them too seriously. But do notice that almost half of job seekers, and these are people who are actually unemployed, spend over three months on their job search. If they were looking for jobs or considering a change before they stopped working, this data doesn't capture that additional time. Working with my clients and students, I find that, start to finish, redesigning your career and conducting a purpose-driven job search rarely takes less than six months. Let's recap. Job searching takes a lot of time. The longer you spend, the more likely you are to get a great result. You can shorten your job search by changing just your title or field. Things always take longer than you think they will, even when you know that that's true. If you get bogged down or tired of the process, remember that designing your career intentionally is a precious gift. Any of us who have the time, energy, and perspective to pursue meaningful and enjoyable work are very lucky. When you're in the weeds of resumes, and interviews, and job boards, try to keep sight of this bigger picture. The time you put in will eventually pay off. So stay focused on your vision and keep going.
