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Real Co$t of a Vacation During Job Search
To Vacation or Not To Vacation. That’s one question. But not the only one. The bigger question is what is the real co$t of that week or two or three away? The article below discusses 3 questions to answer before deciding to go on a vacation during your job search.
Question 1: To Vacation or Not To Vacation?
It’s summer-time, and people take vacations:
- People in companies that you want to meet and network with take vacations.
- People who delay your interview by 2 or 3 weeks because they are on vacation.
- People who want to hire you but the hiring manager is, you guessed it, on vacation!
What do you as a cleared job seeker do? Join the club and take a vacation yourself, or keep on plugging away at your search?
Like the December holiday season, summer is a tricky time of year for cleared job seekers. It can be a challenge to keep your search moving forward when the people inside companies you need to meet are unavailable.
Some cleared job seekers believe it makes sense to stop searching for awhile, and start back up again in the fall. However there is a cost to doing so. Cleared job seekers who take time away lose the advantage which job seekers who keep going gain.
The Competitive Advantage
Many of your competitors will choose to slow or stop their search entirely for awhile, making for fewer people competing for positions. So keep on networking, applying, and attending. While it may take a little longer to secure those networking meetings or interviews, by staying in the game, the advantage is yours!
Question 2: The REAL Co$t of that Summer Vacation.
It gets frustrating when it seems everyone you need and try to meet is unavailable. Everyone you call is on vacation.
So, what’s a job seeker to do? Might as well take a week off and go on vacation too. After all, it’s only week, right? Wrong.
That week off may actually cost you three
That week off and away from your search may actually cost you three. Yes, that’s three weeks away from your search. And, possibly more! Does this describe you:
1. The week, if not more, before your vacation you spend thinking about and getting ready to go on vacation.
2. The week of your vacation.
3. The week after your vacation you spend trying to get back into the swing of hunting for a new cleared job.
What happens during that 3-week period that slows your search?
1. You fall out of the productive habits that you painstakingly put into place to organize your job-search business day.
2. You begin to fall off your network’s radar.
3. Your pipeline begins to dry up.
4. The biggest cost of all, lost opportunities!
The biggest cost of time away can be real $$ that you don’t get the opportunity to earn due to missed leads and opportunities while you’re away. Time away slows your search:
- Hinders your networking
- Takes you out of the geographic vicinity if an unexpected interview happens to pop up
- Feeding your pipeline, the “life line” to finding that next opportunity, slows or stops altogether. Remember, you generate leads to jobs and people by your daily – that’s daily – job search activity.
So before planning that trip, consider the real cost of time away and decide if time away is worth the cost.
Question 3: Vacationing Anyway? Then Be Smart About It.
Still not convinced? Determined to take a vacation anyway? Then be smart about it.
If you are determined to take your summer vacation while you are still searching for a job, put plans into place to keep your job search moving forward from a distance. Here’s how:
1. Be open to possibilities while on vacation. There are countless stories of serendipitous meetings in far away places. Your target list of recruiters may include HP, and an HP recruiter could be sitting next to you on the beach. Or in line with you at Disney World. What’s important is that you are open to opportunity wherever you may be.
2. Keep your search going back home. Advise hot employment prospects that you will be out of the area and attempt to step up your interviews. Who knows you might get an offer before you vacation using this technique, which is the best way to vacation, isn’t it?
3. Network from afar. With today’s technology, you can keep up with your ClearedJobs.Net Job Agents or network via your computer and phone from whatever corner of the earth you’re on. So, set aside a part of each vacation day – maybe an hour or two in the early or late hours of the day – to stay in touch and connected!
The Best Time to Vacation
We’ve all experienced it – that freedom you feel during the time between finishing one job and starting the next.
● Choice 1: Well, your job search is your job right now. And, you can experience that same sense of freedom if you delay that vacation until after you have received your next job offer but before you’ve begun your new job. And you’ll have a lot to celebrate!
● Choice 2: But, if you prefer not to delay, or have travel plans that commit you to travel mid-job search, be smart about advance planning so your search is still viable when you return from your vacation.
The choice is yours. Whatever you decide, plan and take pains to keep your search momentum moving forward. Either way, have a great vacation!
Nancy Gober is a career strategist who has helped thousands of job seekers find employment. She’s also been a popular resume reviewer at our Cleared Job Fairs. You may reach Nancy via email at [email protected]. Follow Nancy on Twitter @AfterJobClub.
My in-laws lived near a recruiter who was interested in hiring me for a remote position. I offered to meet him while we were visiting them.
Unfortunately, the position was cancelled, but I was able to keep up with the search online, partly by travelling there and back mid-week, so we weren’t gone all of either week. There was less traffic then, too.