So you’ve been super active with your job search ever since you started it.
And, you’re proud to say that you have been interviewing steadily for the last few weeks and in fact, you are now in the second interview stage with two of your dream companies.
CONGRATULATIONS!
After months of active job search, you finally feel like the search is coming to an end. And it’s been a gruelling one.
It’s such a relief to be here right now.
It took you some time to figure out the strategies that worked best for you in your job search and eventually, you got into a groove with your search and managed to get your activities down to the ones that worked best.
And now, it’s looking like it will all come to an end very soon and YOU ARE READY TO PLACE YOUR JOB SEARCH EFFORTS ON HOLD, FINALLY!
Well, with two companies now wanting to interview you for the second time, you’re bound to get an offer right?
YES, YOU MAY GET AN OFFER.
OR YOU MAY GET TWO.
OR, UNFORTUNATELY, YOU MAY GET NONE FROM THESE 2 COMPANIES.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s absolutely great news that they have called you in for second interviews. And I couldn’t be happier for you, for real.
I have to tell you something though: YOU MUST KEEP ON GOING!
You must keep on going? Yes, you must. This is not the time to put everything on hold.
But Danielle, you say, I’m tired of searching and it really gets old after a while and I just want to take a break!
You can take a break, of course you can. But if you are committed to finding a great position in the shortest amount of time, you must go on!
You must continue because a number of things could happen here and I’ve had some of these things happen to me and I’ve seen them happen to others I’ve coached as well.
And when they happened:
I WAS SO GLAD I KEPT ON GOING AND KEPT ON SPREADING MY JOB SEARCH EGGS.
Just to be sure your eyes are wide open here, I have a list of things that could happen, even when you go to a second, third or even fourth interview:
- They may decide to go back to the drawing board and not hire anyone from their current short list (yes, this happened to me)
- They may decide to put the job opening on hold after weeks of seeking just the perfect candidate because of a big change in leadership happening at the top (yes, this happened to me)
- They may decide that you are not the right candidate even though you have ALL the skills and experience they were looking for because they can’t picture you travelling as much as the role demands (yes, this happened too even though I LOVE to travel)
I could go on but I think this may have gotten your attention right?
My point here is that you have NO CONTROL over what happens next in terms of the company’s decision-making process.
All you control is how you navigate through this period, for your best outcome which would be to find a great role in the shortest amount of time with as little stress as possible.
Job search can be like dating in many ways.
You must keep your options open until you’ve found the one and you agree to be exclusive.
Keep up with your job search until you have found THE ONE and have signed on the dotted line.
And then, ENJOY and hopefully live happily ever after or until the next opportunity presents itself!