Is It Time for a New Job in 2018?

The end of last year marked some great news for people with their eyes on the job market. In December, the economy added 148,000 jobs. This marked 87 straight months of job gains, something that anyone could appreciate. “The real mystery is why hasn’t wage growth really picked up?” says Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors. “That continues to be the challenge for this job market.”

What can you determine from this news is that that there are plenty of jobs out there, but your boss may not be in a hurry to hand out raises. As a result, you may want to consider looking for alternative options for a job. First, you want to scan the scene to see if it’s worth holding on.

Check the Signs

The vast majority of us spend the bulk of our days dealing with work, counting a commute as the typical 8-hour workday. As a result, when things go wrong at work, they affect your whole life. There are some common signs to look out for when it comes to your job.

For one, if your talk about work, both on the job and off, becomes almost exclusively negative, your relationship with your work may become toxic. To be clear, the occasional feeling that you want to leave work after a frustrating moment is a perfectly natural moment. However, if your conversations become dominated by these thoughts, even when it’s not directly related, you may have a problem on your hands.

In some cases, you may find yourself developing bad habits as a direct response to your issues with work. These can include poor sleep, which only makes things worse, as getting proper sleep is an essential part of maintaining mental health as well as many other parts of health. Increased alcohol or drug consumption may be a thing to note as well. In some cases, your stress may manifest as physical symptoms, like headaches, frequent colds, or other problems. A doctor will be able to let you know whether it is actually stress-related or just another issue you are managing.

Also, you may find yourself losing production at work due to a lack of interest in what you are doing. This may mean your job isn’t mentally stimulating enough to hold your interest, which is a serious possible issue.

Of course, there is also the possibility that you like your job, but things aren’t going well financially. Do you notice that positions are rapidly reshuffling, especially at the higher levels? Do people seem less interested in the actual work? In this case, your company may be under financial duress, enough to put your job in jeopardy. Whether you plan on getting out in front of things or going down with the ship, you want to see what your future job options may be.

Finding New Work

There are more and more resources out there for people to use to look for work, from alumni organizations to industry associations. This opens up potential opportunities that you likely won’t see on your typical job board. If you’re into software development, you can easily find software engineering job posts even online. You just have to make sure you pass the qualifications and make it ahead of other applicants. Of course, don’t forget the fact that you need to have a resume that matches the job you are looking for. This means two main steps:

1. Making sure that you incorporate your current job into your resume. This means not just your job title, but also your duties, relevant accomplishments, and skills that you’ve displayed/learned on the job.
2. Making sure that your resume matches what your current jobs are looking for. Modern HR professionals are getting more and more resumes, and something customized to the position is more likely to catch their eye.

Of course, the trade-off to this is that it takes time to put together different resumes for every job you’re looking for. This is doubly so if you’re not a natural writer, so consider using these resume templates to handle the time gap. The key to success is to not submit these directly, but use them to cut down time. Start by using these as an outline for a professional looking and sounding resume. After that, include your appropriate information. Following that, trim and position your experience so that the items most relevant to the job position are prominent. With all these things in place, you are in an ideal position to have a job that is a better match for your needs.