When To Halt The Job Search


I think I got a gig.  We'll see . . .  The details still need to be ironed out.  This, however, brings us to an interesting question.  When does a candidate halt the job search?  The obvious answer is when one gets a job, but things are not always that clear.  The answer depends on one's circumstances.  If one is broke, then one had better keep chugging ahead applying for jobs until a start date for the new job is set.  I've even been in situations where the start date has been moved back.  Fortunately, I've never been in any situation where the start date evaporates or the job offer gets rescinded, but that likely has happened to someone.

Conversely, if one has money, then it's time to halt the job search.  Even if things go awry, you can always start it up again.  Yeah, maybe you missed a couple of decent opportunities, but odds are the job will go forward and if you didn't halt the search, you would have missed out on an even rarer commodity:  time.

Time is always more valuable than money; that's why people pay for your time.  You can always make more money, but you can never make more time.  So if you think you have a job in the bag, go enjoy your free time until the job starts.  You might not have an extended bout of free time again until retirement.  You don't want to waste it looking at job ads and applying for jobs when you have one in the bag already.  You might end up getting another job offer in the meantime anyway from your previous applications, and then you have to make a decision.

The one major exception is if the job is an iffy one and think you might be able to do better, then you should play station to station baseball.  Keep applying and see if you can get a better one.  If you can't, oh well, you tried.  You can always keep applying occasionally while working it, but at least you have the income flowing again.  If you can get a better gig, then great!  Be polite and tell the first job that something came up.  They might be sore, but that's not your responsibility to run their company.  At will employment cuts both ways (if you have a contract, then things might be trickier).  Don't ghost them though.  That's just rude.

So this is probably my last post.  If I'm really lucky, there won't be another one ever and Google will sometime pull the plug on the blog in a couple of years, but I will leave it up in hopes that it can help other job applicants (and maybe even a smarter company or two).  If I'm not so lucky, then I am sure I will be back for your edification and amusement as I grumble more about the absurdity of the modern job search. 

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