It's the cereal-at-2 pm moment: the instant you realise that surfing the web in pyjamas at midday, while munching cereal, is no way to get the sales job of your dreams. If you want to find a great job you need a routine.
"It is so easy to slip into bad habits when you're between jobs," says Kate Burton, a career coach and best-selling author on life and work. You'll naturally want to take a small break after a job but don't let that time stretch out too long. Once you decide to start looking for a job, the break is over. You'll need to treat your week like a work week or else time will just slip away.
The period between jobs is an opportunity for salespeople to think clearly about career goals and objectives. Although it's tempting to go for the first job which crops up, try to resist: think of the bigger picture and what you want in the long term. Remember, your best years are still ahead of you. You have built up all this experience and now is the time to cash in on it.
Get up
Finding great sales jobs is mainly about attitude. Stay motivated by getting up, taking a shower and getting dressed as if it were a normal working day. Continuing with the kind of routine you practiced when you were working will help put you in a positive frame of mind.
Set goals for yourself
Maintaining focus while jobseeking can be exhausting for even the most motivated of salespeople, so adopt sustainable hours. Trawling through job ads, making calls and sending out CVs for eight hours straight isn't necessarily a productive schedule – it's better to spend a shorter, and more focussed, amount of time searching.
Make a to-do list of everything you want to accomplish that day. Don't put too much on your plate but also don't end the day until you've done everything you set out to do.
Share your goals with others
If there is a challenging task that needs doing tell a friend or housemate about it, and report back when you've competed it. Pick someone you know will throw it in your face when you didn't do something you said you would. Those people, while usually irritating, are going to be the only ones keeping you accountable.
Get out of the house
As salespeople, we're naturally social, but it is too easy to retreat from socialising while between jobs. However, time spent with friends, particularly those within your industry, is rarely wasted. As well as boosting your confidence, informal networking allows you to stay up to date with what's happening in your industry.
Develop your skills
If time does hang heavy between jobs, consider doing something meaningful, such as a short course to improve your qualifications or voluntary work. Here are some tips on how volunteering can improve your career prospects. Employers like to see that potential recruits have retained their enthusiasm and initiative between jobs.
Burton says: "Time spent doing voluntary work isn't wasted, not only can it make you feel better but a lot of businesses take their social responsibility agenda seriously. If you can show that you fit in with their corporate outlook there's a far better chance that you'll fit in with their team."
Strategies
Also be sure your are being as efficient as possible with the time you allot for jobseeking. Create job alerts to be among the first to hear about a job. Write compelling CVs to send out with applications. Really understand how online job hunting works – there are some things you can do to maximise your efforts. Make each application form shine. And know what to do before, during and after each interview you go on. Good luck!
