Just hearing the word “long” used to grate on me, when I’d hear this question as a job seeker.

Vote now:

How long have you been job searching?

  • More than a year (35%, 68 Votes)
  • 6-12 months (22%, 43 Votes)
  • Just started this past month (16%, 32 Votes)
  • 1-3 months (14%, 28 Votes)
  • 3-6 months (13%, 23 Votes)

Total Voters: 194

What many job seekers don’t realize

When I ask job seekers how long it’s been since their job search began, a typical reply is “too long.”

Yeah, I know what you mean.

Sometimes people will say “well, I just started looking…” but almost NO ONE ever says “for the position I’m looking for, in today’s market, in this city, it takes 4-6 months on the average to find a new job. I’ve been looking for 3 months, so it’s still early…”

After I resigned from my job at Amazon in the summer of 2001, I thought it would take 1 month to find a new job. And that was just after I’d moved back to Jerusalem and had no idea how much (lack of) demand there was for my skillset there at the time. I was so clueless. I thought employers would be impressed by my Amazon achievements and I’d have my pick of offers.

Really.

Why did I think it would only take me just 1 month? Because my previous job had taken about that long to find. Having been my first full-time career job, I didn’t know any better.

Now I know better… but that’s a topic for an upcoming article.

How did you estimate how long your current job search should take?

If you liked this article, you’ll enjoy [POLL RESULTS AND ANALYSIS] Which Social Media Network Are You Using MOST in Your Job Search?.

Subscribe to JobMob via RSS or email and follow me on Twitter for more inspiring job search polls.

--Jacob Share

  Print This Post Add a comment 14 great comments. Join in!

  Tags: ,     Category Filed under: Numbers & Statistics