The "Try Consulting" Job Seeker TRAP

When I was searching for a job during the 2020 Pandemic I was a mature job seeker so I had a lot of experience in my job category. People told me I "Should get into consulting". I heard it more than once. I actually did spend some time developing a consulting effort and even helped one company during that time.

When you are let go from a job it can be a mental and emotional hit and we all want to feel useful. When you mix those factors with deep industry experience in an area it is easy to see why people would urge us to try consulting (or that we would think of it on our own).

I can't tell you how many job seekers who split their efforts between these consulting attempts and a job search.

Let me be real here: when you are burning cash and feeling the pressure it is likely you will make things worse for yourself if you split your attention and try to become a consultant during your job search. (plenty of time when you get a job to think about slowly building a consulting business nights/weekends)

You want to focus 30-40 hours/week on a concerted, disciplined, systematic, and creative job search. Do not split your attention and use this time to develop a consulting business, it will slow down your job search.