When should you start planning your next career move?

I called someone about a job opportunity - quite a standard thing for a recruiter to do - and they were keen to hear the details.

They made reference to their new role and I asked if they'd moved on since we last spoke.

"Yeah, just started a new job today actually. Let me just find a meeting room".

I have heard the advice of always keep an eye out for your next opportunity but day 1 into a new role? In a world where one side tells us to continually move to the highest paying, best opportunity because the next employer will pay you more than the current and the other side doesn't want someone with too many short stints or job hoppers, what's the middle ground?

Spoiler alert, there is no magic number or rule here. Like most things in careers and job searching, it's just a matter of opinion.

But somewhere between "always be looking" and "move when you're no longer happy/progressing/motivated" is generally where I would land as a rule, but there's more to it than that.

If you're currently in a position that you don't love and lets say you've been there about 6 months and you're approached about another role. I'd first be thinking about your recent job history and how the combination will look to the next employer.

6 months in this role and the last 2 roles were also under a year? I would stay put if possible because if this next role doesn't work out and you've got 3 roles all under a year, you're going to start to get labelled as a job hopper.

I'm not saying I support that labelling as often the context on why someone left a role is valid and in the last few years, we've had Covid and companies with a new found taste for mass layoffs. But the reality is that is how a lot of hiring managers will see you when they see your resume.

Then I see a lot of people who decide they want a new role but have done nothing for years to build any sort of momentum so that when they start looking, they are starting from scratch.

What sort of things could you be doing when you're not looking for a new role that can help you have momentum and options for when you are?

The absolute number 1 under utilised and most effective thing you can be doing is networking with your existing network. Now if you rolled your eyes at the word "networking", I feel ya. It can feel like an extroverts world of wearing suits and launching business cards at each other, each with more subtle off white colouring and tasteful thickness.

I'm not talking about that kind of networking, I'm talking about texting/DM/call/smoke pigeons (a highly dangerous and controversial form of communication that combines smoke signals and pigeon messaging) your ex colleagues.

You don't have to - and I don't recommend - starting the message with "hey I'm looking for a new job, is your company hiring", especially if that is the first thing you've said to them in months/years.

But just catch up with them, have a coffee or a beer or a Monster Zero Ultra Fiesta©️ with them. By simply reminding them that you exist, enjoyed working with them and showing an interest in their lives, you will be shocked at how effective this is for opening up new opportunities.

You can put it down to things like recency bias but also in a world where 1 in 3 Australian's experience loneliness and 1 in 5 experience severe loneliness, that positive human connection might just be what your ex-colleague (and maybe you) need in your life.

It's the sort of thing you should be doing once a month or so and it's not an instant thing, it's what you do now so that when you're looking for a job you can have a network of people to reach out to without it feeling like you're begging from a stranger.

Other things you can do:

• Attend industry events and build new networks. If you're an introvert and don't love the idea of attending an event by yourself, try attending webinars and send follow up messages to the speakers and build relationships over platforms like LinkedIn (Yes, LinkedIn can be useful for things like this and not just subtle shots of new Rolexes)

• Research companies you'd like to work for, particularly in the world of startups it can be hard to know of every company out there. But if you find a product or a founder that you love and you express your love for them (professional love, don't be a creep) before everyone else, this goes a long way. What most people do is wait for that startup to hit the news from a Series A or B raise and then send resumes over amongst hundreds of others. As the saying goes , the early bird gets the first iced soy matcha at the run club.

• Find 1-2 recruiters that you like (insert joke about this being impossible), meet them so they understand who you are and what you're looking for so that they can run opportunities past you. Anti-recruiters will hate how many people get jobs via recruiters.

If it was me on the other end of that call, I would have said "I've just started a new job today but maybe give me a call in 3-6 months if something else comes up and I'll see where I'm at"

Good luck to everyone job hunting out there today, it's been a tough market for many for a while now.

And if you're not looking right now, think about starting some of these as monthly habits because you will thank yourself (and hopefully me in the form of cash donations) when the time comes. I promise you will.