It is such a terrible experience being unemployed. It means you do not have an income. And that is scary because the bills do not know this. No, they just keep on coming. They eat into the savings you have built up over the years. Or even worse, you have to borrow or sell assets to make sure you can pay them. This is terrifying!

The bad news is that it often takes quite some time to find a job. And that means it could be quite some time before your income kicks in again. The time lag between starting to look for work and landing that job is a serious issue. And that is precisely what this series of articles endeavours to address. How do you reduce the time between when you start looking for a job and when you get it?

So lets start getting organised. The first thing you want to do is to define precisely what type of job you want. So many people miss this step, yet its so important. Not defining the job you want will mean you end up wasting all your time chasing irrelevant opportunities. You may be so busy with the irrelevant jobs that you miss the relevant ones. Further, you may actually get a job which is just bad for you.

Your ideal job today will be specific to you, in this moment in time. So do not go around asking other people what they think. Spend a couple of hours on your own, thinking about what exactly is the right job for you now, looking at the next 5 years of your life. There are many considerations to think about, some of these include:

There are work specific considerations. What work do you enjoy? What do you specialise in? Where have you earned all your experience? Your past should help you with your direction, but don’t let it rule your future.

What type of organisation are you looking for? Do your prefer big ones where there is lots of opportunity? Or do you prefer smaller more intimate organisations, organisations where everyone knows your first name?

Money is all important for obvious reasons. What is your range? Are there things you are willing to trade off for a little less money? What is industry standard for the roles you are looking at?

How urgent is starting work in a new job for you right now? Is it absolutely urgent, do you need something today. Or can you hold out for a better offer. This will be crucial in defining how specific you can be on you job hunt. The more urgent the new job is, the less specific you can be.

Is location an issue? Is travel an issue?

Spending an hour or so thinking about these types of factors will save you a lot of time in the long run. Rather than spending hours trawling through newspaper ads and employment websites, having defined what you want, you can be very specific with your searches.

And as you have saved your time in the search phase of the job hunt, you can use your time much more effectively preparing your applications and interviews. This will give you a much better chance of winning your ideal job over time.

Gnifrus Urquart coaches lots of professionals with career advice and business opportunities You can get a unique content version of this article from the Uber Article Directory.