Marketing Career Zone

Plastering your name and your credentials all over the Internet and attending face-to-face networking events is all very well, but what happens if you are already employed and want to start a new career in sales or marketing or simply want to move to a different company?  Clearly you are not going to want to let the cat out of the bag, so here are a few useful tips to bear in mind.

1.    Don’t tell your current colleagues that you are job hunting, even the ones that you think you can trust.  Even with your best interests at heart, it is so easy for others to let your secret slip, leaving you to face the bad feeling and loss of trust with your boss.

2.    Save your job hunting for outside office hours.  Nothing that you view on an office computer is private and e-mails can either have a nasty habit of going astray or may be monitored by your company.  However cryptic you might try to make your responses during an employment-related telephone conversation, you would be surprised how easily suspicions can be aroused.

3.    Whilst building online profiles and professional networking are activities that a great many people are involved in nowadays, many do so with an eye towards the future or simply to help them gain greater knowledge in their field or industry.  Never blatantly broadcast the fact that you are in the market for a new marketing job in an online environment.  Letting others know in a face-to-face situation that, like everyone else, you are open to other opportunities, is something quite different to shouting your job search from the roof tops.  Telling trusted confidantes in a personal setting that you are actively seeking another position allows you to stress the need for discretion in a way that you cannot do, for example, over the telephone or in an e-mail.  As far as your online activities are concerned, trust that the opportunities will come your way without you having to broadcast your intentions.

4.    Don’t attend job fairs whilst you are still employed – you never know who might turn up.  Clients, suppliers or co-workers who may already have resigned may have no compunction about spreading the news.

5.    As obvious as it may sound, don’t ask your current employer for references.  The time to supply these to a prospective employer is only after you have received and accepted a formal job offer.

6.    Only respond to job advertisements where the hiring company is clearly identified.  Applying unknowingly for a position within your own organisation is one of the most embarrassing ways to get caught out.

7.    Targeting your job hunt not only vastly increases your chances of success, but also has the benefit of being considerably more discreet.  The law of averages says that the wider you cast your net, the greater your chances of being discovered.

Job hunting when you are already employed simply requires a little caution and common sense, and conducting it via a well-established and trustworthy network is your safest approach and the one most likely to return results.