’Tis the season to get serious (about your career)

Are you thinking about postponing your career change again simply because of the holiday season? Well, guess what? You are not alone. Many executives feel it would be more comfortable to coast through the holidays, put up with the irritations of their current positions a little longer, forgo earning more money, and start their career search in January… when everyone else does. Read Tomorrow’s Timeless Allure.

It happens every year. A tidal wave of resumes hits the market at the same time, overwhelming the available positions and handing employers huge leverage in their choice of candidates.

So, yes, you could do that, too… or you could do the smart thing and get a jump on the market. Here are a few good reasons to get going now:

1) Good things take time

The longer you wait, the longer you are stuck in that role you want to escape. Preparing a decent resume and sending it to recruiters or applying for online jobs—none of that is instantaneous. It takes work, time, and patience. Especially if you do it all yourself, because, most probably, you do not really know how to navigate the executive career market. Read The Dangers of the Do-It-Yourself Market.

2) You are also probably missing the largest segment of the executive market

Our research shows that more than 450,000 executives change positions each year in the US, EU, UK and Middle East. (Read A World of Executive Opportunity.) But our more than 30 years of experience suggests that only 25% of those opportunities are visible in the published and executive recruiter markets. The other 75% are filled via the inscrutable unpublished market, and unless you know how to navigate it, you’re probably going to end of taking longer and ultimately earning less than you would if you got some professional help from the Barrett Group. Read more about this enormous Invisible Market.

3) The Barrett Group has a finite capacity

We have helped thousands of executives clarify their career objectives and then discover their targeted opportunities (largely in the unpublished market) over the last three decades. As a result, Forbes recognizes us as one of the best in the business. Our clients benefit from a clear understanding of how to navigate the largest market segment, and further from our support in interviewing, and in negotiating their packages. Through our guidance, typically our clients can significantly enrich the offers they receive. But we can only serve so many clients at a time.

4) Return on investment

If your time is money, the sooner you earn more money the better off you will be. That is exactly how our landed clients feel. They are earning more now because they did not postpone and procrastinate. Read The Results Don’t Lie: It’s the ROI! for more details.

5) Front of the queue

Besides, if you wait until the new year, you will not be at the front of the queue. You will be in the middle or at the end of the queue of candidates who have formed a sudden New Year’s resolution and decided to look for a new job.

The new year does have a positive side in that hiring budgets are fresh, businesses often feel more confident about their annual ambitions in the first quarter, and many executives will wait to receive their annual bonuses before deciding to leave and create the vacancies that you hope to fill. However, again, the whole process of clarifying your objectives, packaging you for the market, and then guiding you as you navigate the three markets we cover takes time.

Starting in January means you will be late to the party.

So now is truly the time to get serious about that career change you have been putting off for months (or years).

Explore how we help clients land in our Success Studies, or take a look at those clients who landed in one week in the middle of November (executives who did not postpone and procrastinate, but took the plunge and succeeded):

• Chief Revenue Officer, $300k base and $30k bonus opportunity (Media and Entertainment)
• Land Manager, total package of more than $330k (Energy)
• CEO, $450k base plus 75% bonus opportunity and equity (Transportation)
• Commercial Director, $300k total package (Energy)
• CEO and Operating Partner, CHF 450k base plus bonus (Consumer)
• Head of Commercial Operations, SAR 636k plus perks (Pharmaceutical)

We publish our clients’ results every week in our Frontline Reports, so you can witness the Barrett Group advantage, or, better yet, you can get serious about your career and take advantage of our service yourself. Give us a call!

Peter Irish, CEO
The Barrett Group