Decisions of a Jobseeker

A job search is not a test of effort. It is a sequence of decisions.

Most people pour in effort — more applications, a harder-polished resume, more networking — and stall, then conclude they are doing the work wrong. Usually they are not. The search stalled because the hard part was never the effort. It was the deciding: which direction, which roles out of the thousands you could chase, how to make a stranger see your value in seconds, when to push on an offer and when to close, and what to do when the role you wanted turns out to be wrong.

Get better at those decisions and the effort starts to pay. That is what this complete edition teaches — a better way of deciding, in the order a real search asks you to decide.

It brings together, and goes beyond, all six Handbooks in the Job Seekers series: The First-Role Handbook (landing the first job, from study into work), The Career Pivot Handbook (changing field or function), The Internal Move Handbook (the promotion inside your own organisation), The Rebound Handbook (the comeback after redundancy or a layoff), The Return-to-Work Handbook (returning after a career break), and The Interview Handbook (the conversation that runs through all five).

Then it adds what none has alone: the five paths read as one, the eight decisions beneath every search drawn out in full, and — at the end — the method itself, named and made portable, so it serves you long after this search is over. Worked examples throughout: the thinking good choices rest on, shown not just told.