This photo is ironic, as Mary is not about climbing corporate ladders / gt8073a's photostream on Flickr

I accepted an awesome new job a month ago.  It was a long process and here’s what I learned along the way:

1. Ask questions – I realized about a year ago that I needed a change.  I wasn’t sure how to move forward so I started thinking about the big questions, like what truly makes me happy?  Once I started figuring out what I wanted my next job to look like, I started asking for advice.
2. Be honest – I noticed that once I started sharing that I was looking for my next challenge, people really wanted to help.  I was made offers of connections to opportunities that I wasn’t interested in and learned that I had to be clear and honest in order to make it easier for nice people to help.
3. Be brave – it wasn’t exactly comfortable to approach people in my network for informal chats about their work.  But it got easier and became a lot of fun.
4. Show-up at work – mentally checking out at work is brutal.  It makes for long and tedious days.  I found that the harder, better and smarter I performed at my day job, the more confidence I had to pursue other leads, contacts and roles.
5. Follow up – I had regular reminders from my nearest and dearest that no-one was thinking about my job search as much as I was.  And that thoughtful follow up is a good practice.
6. Don’t take it personally – it took patience to remain positive through rejection emails and un-returned phone calls.  Eventually I think I did a pretty good job of not taking things to heart.
7. Take your time with offer – on the happy day that my offer letter arrived in my inbox, I was so excited that I would have signed it on the spot.  I got some great advice to take my time with the offer and really think about what I was signing.
8. Get advice – again, people are happy to help and offer great info provided you are clear in what you’re asking.  I used my network to collect as much info as I could before moving forward.
9. Negotiate – be gracious and consider the offer letter as the starting point in a conversation.  It’s not easy but it’s not that hard either.  Ask a friend to help you practice so you’re comfortable and position yourself to start your new job on the right foot.
10. Time off between jobs – it takes time to refresh and it’s important.  How much time will depend on you.
11. Keep network alive – spend time with your colleagues at job you’re leaving.  If you’re like me, you probably didn’t do enough of it when you worked together every day.  It’s been so nice getting to know my cubicle-mates in this past little while.
12. Get advice from current boss to take to new role – I scheduled a mini performance review that actually turned into a coaching session.  It was awesome to be able to reflect upon my work-style with my manager.  Very useful for starting a new job.
13. Visualize yourself kicking-ass in your new job and get excited!