With job searches taking longer, there are more jobseekers bumping up against their severance¹ deadline (or their own mental deadline that tells them they should have found a job by now).

随着找工作花的时间长了，越来越多的求职者发现已逼近他们找工作的明确限期，或者仅仅是他们心理上的限期，即主观上告诉自己现在本该已找到工作的。

A popular question that I hear often is how long you should hold out for that dream job before moving to plan B.

我常听到的一个问题就是：人们应该为梦想中的工作坚持多久才退而执行另外的计划呢？

The answer is different for everyone:

答案因人而异，下面一些可能的影响因素：

What is your time urgency? Have you run the actual numbers on your cash cushion runs out? The shorter the time you have, the wider your net has to be. Even if your dream company/ industry/ functional² area is hiring, when you have a short timeframe, you need to have multiple searches well underway.

你最紧迫的事是什么？你有没有计算过你目前的储蓄可以支撑多少天？时间越急，你撒的网就必须越广。即使你心仪的公司、行业、领域正在招人，考虑到时间紧促，你也应该同时多处留意。

What is your risk appetite? Some people are energized³ by putting all their focus on their passion. Some people would be so nervous that they couldn’t do their best work. Some people are distracted doing more than one thing at a time so they have to decide on plan A or B, but can only choose one.

你的冒险意愿强不强呢？有些人能量十足，将所有精力集中到其热情所在。有些人则过分紧张以至于不能将工作做到最好。还有些人则容易因为数事并举而分心，只得决定是执行A计划还是执行B计划，只能二选其一。

What are your dream job prospects⁴? Are you looking to break into the subprime mortgage origination business, or are you looking into alternative energy? Some sectors⁵ are hotter than others. Growing industries will hire faster. Newer industries will hire people with less experience (since by default everyone has less experience in brand new industries) and are more open to career changers.

你梦想中的工作前景如何呢？现在的你是希望进军引发次级抵押贷款危机的金融行业，还是考虑新能源产业呢？当然，有些行业较其它行业更热门。朝阳产业对人力资源需求更大。新兴产业不介意雇用经验不那么丰富的员工，因为大家默认在全新的产业领域所有人经验都会相对不足，相对也更愿对改行的求职者敞开门户。

These are just some of the issues that you have to weigh. The work involves actually thinking through these issues – calculating your financial obligations v. your reserves, examining your will, researching your target sectors. It is not a single right or wrong answer, but more of a process and series of actions. In this way, it is less about waiting and more about doing. The best jobseekers are proactive and don’t wait.

有些问题是你不得不权衡的。找工作实际上牵涉到对以下问题的细致考虑——计算你的财务负担和你的储蓄情况，审视自己的工作意愿，以及研究你的目标行业。这不是一个简单的或对或错的答案，更大程度上是一个过程和一系列的行动。就这个意义而言，它更多的是在于做，而不在于等。最好的求职者从来不坐等其成，而是主动出击。