EmploymentScape’s Chief Executive Officer, A. Harrison Barnes as he discussed ways to prepare for a job search and interviews.

In life we are always being observed, watched and judged. One thing about interviewing is that there will likely almost always be someone where you are interviewing that knows of you. That person will likely have a say in your hiring and your new position.  Be aware of this and you will be preparing for interviews every second of every day. When you are interviewing with a truly excellent person, he or she will easily be able to see through if you are a slacker or someone who does not consistently challenge one’s mind. Hence, you need to always be doing good work even when you may not want to make long-term plans to be at your current firm.
 
Despite that fact that people can switch jobs at a whim, switching jobs is not always the smartest thing to do. In fact, there are few good reasons to leave most employers. The best reason and the only reason is if there is something inside your firm that is so endemic to the firm and so pervasive that unless you leave, your career will never go forward. These factors also should be near 100% beyond your control.

If you show a lot of commitment to your current employer you will be respected if you have to leave due to factors outside of your control. If your reason for leaving is sound and the next firm who hires you believes you are likely to remain on board in the face of adversity then they are more likely to hire you. People want to have people with staying power in their organizations. No organization is perfect and all organizations go through ups and downs.

Harrison believes that that the time to prepare for interviews and a job search is before you even think of getting into the job search mode. Being a good employee and a job searcher is something that takes the same amount of time and effort to achieve.