Spoke on the phone today with a former client who was as excited as she has landed a new job. As we talked about it and I asked her to walk me through the steps, an interesting thing surfaced. The company had placed an ad for a Sales Manager but a few weeks later took it off their website. When she called to find out if she was in the running, HR told her that the company had decided not to fill that position.

Fast forward a few months and my client gets a call from the same company and learns that a different division needed a sales manager and asked HR to share the resumes they had previously collected. Hers was chosen because they knew she was in transition and might be more open to an opportunity that was temp to perm. In other words, being out of work made her a more attractive candidate. She went on the interview and got the job. So don’t assume that your current status, if you’re out of work, is a disadvantage.