How to Look for a New Job While Still Working Your Current Job

Finding a new job can be a challenge. What makes the challenge of a job hunt even more stress-filled is when you need to find a job. The best time to look for a job is when you already have one. Not only does looking when you already are employed take most of the stress away, it also allows you to think more clearly and make better decisions when you are offered a position.

But how can you, a busy sales executive, find time to both deliver results in your current position and invest the time it takes to look for and interview for a new position? It may not be easy, but it can, and often is, done.

Create Your List

Whenever conducting a job search, the clearer you are about what you want, the better your results will be. Knowing as much detail about your desired job before and during your search will help you avoid opportunities that present themselves as attractive, but are actually positions that will not lead you to fulfillment. Create a list of all the positive traits, including compensation, benefits, co-workers, advancement opportunities, expected activity levels, quota and any other factor that is important for you.

Maximize Your Time

Someone once said that there are no guarantees in life. You need to keep that in mind when choosing between putting in your best effort at your current position or spending selling time looking for another position. If you keep making the decision to look rather than to work, it must show in your results and that will get the attention of your manager. That could lead to you losing your position before finding another.

So how do you do both look and deliver? Only by maximizing your time. The ways to do so are potentially endless. The best way to find time to look for another position is to analyze how you currently spend the 8 or so hours per day when at work. If, for example, you normally spend 2 hours a day in your car and you normally spend those 2 hours listening to music or talk radio, decide instead to use that time to call people from your network. These calls can serve to both strengthen your connections and to let people know that you are in the market for an new position.

If you normally spend 1 hour having lunch, bring your lunch and try to schedule interviews during the lunch hour. You many have to be flexible with your "lunch time" to accommodate for the lunch hours of hiring managers, but eating an hour sooner or later than usual won't do you much harm.

Be Honest

People have patterns of behavior. In general, if someone does something once, they probably have done it in the past and will probably do it again in the future. When you are interviewing with a hiring manager, let her know, up front, that you are currently employed and that you are still dedicated to delivering results in your current position. Let her know that you made adjustments to your schedule to allow for interviews and current position obligations.

Being honest will let the hiring manager know that you are not the type to take advantage of the freedom most sales positions afford and that you are an employee who respects their employer. Don't ever present yourself as a dissatisfied employee who has no regard for their current employer. While that may be the case, showing that to a potential new employee will not put you in the best light possible.

Don't Burn Bridges

Before you attend your first interview, decide that you will leave your current employer professionally. The growing world of social media and expanding professional networks can turn any sized city into a small town. If you leave a company in an unprofessional manner, expect that others will learn about it and that your new employer may find out as well.

Anthony Robbins, famous life-coach, suggests that we should all live our lives as if we are a public figure. If we assume that everything we do will make headlines somewhere, we will focus on always putting our best foot forward. Whether that foot forward is leaving your old company's front door or leading you into your new office, make that foot one you can be proud of.