Focus on the intangibles (e.g., boss and colleagues, office culture, room for growth), not just on the basic job elements (e.g., title, salary, security). You want to like where you work, and you want to establish career momentum. Aiming for being lucky enough to get a job is not going to be high enough to get anything. The higher you aim, the more likely you get more.
Focus on the long-term, despite the short-term urgency.
I absolutely coach my clients to be realistic about their cash position and personal circumstances, which may require that they take consulting, temporary or even less-than-ideal full-time jobs if their obligations dictate that. There may be moves you make in the immediate term that will move you off your idealized long-term path. But then you must immediately get back on there.
Don’t get complacent in your underutilized role.
Keep with the search, and dial it up a notch now that you have regained some breathing room. It is a big mistake that many jobseekers make to get a comfortable job and forget the urgency to push for something more.
Remember you are managing a career, not any one job.
It may seem counterintuitive (and outrageous) given the tight market to recommend you shoot for the moon.
But that stretch is what you need to get anything accomplished when times are difficult.
You may as well stretch towards the direction you really want to go.
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Caroline Ceniza-Levine is a career coach, writer, speaker, Gen Y expert and co-founder of SixFigureStart (www.sixfigurestart.com), a career coaching firm comprised of former Fortune 500 recruiters. Formerly in corporate HR and retained search, Caroline most recently headed University Relations for Time Inc and has also recruited for Accenture, Citibank, Disney ABC, and others. Caroline is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Professional Development at Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs and posts at CNBC Executive Careers and Vault.com.
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