Here I am.
I thought I’m not the kind of person who likes job hopping, the increasing phenomenon (specially in some IT fields) in which you keep riding the wave of new opportunities, for several reasons, but mainly because (one or more of the following reasons):

• you want to climb the virtual ladder of career (usually slow or really difficult in most companies);
• often related to the previous point, you want to increase your salary;
• you’re searching for a meaningful job where you “have an impact”;
• you discover that the environment (policy, people) of your company/department is not what you expected.

In my case, I joined a company with the intention to stay while trying to pursue a really slow career, even if I accepted something much below the “level” I left, I felt like Kevin Spacey in “American Beauty” (here the Mr Smiley scene), looking for a relatively slow-paced job, even if in absolute terms it’s not “that simple job”: it’s just that our brain works comparing situations and, comparing with my previous life (a military officer working as a cybersecurity manager), the ceiling of my current job is below the floor I used to have. Once, when we had a particular situation at my current work, a colleague of mine said “We’re in a war!”, I laughed and simply replied back: “Man, are you kidding me? I’ve been in real operations in military missions, so you couldn’t even imagine what you’re talking about”. During my (quite long) military career, I was trained for the most stressful imaginable situations where taking care of yourself, your team and your equipment really means life or death, so please stop with this insane narrative with war-related terminology, it was also proved during the first phase of CoViD-19 pandemic that using that kind of language is not only inappropriate and unrespectful, but also psichologically harmful for you and others. Anyway, I was enjoying my new life with a new job, but… as it often happens, things/situations don’t last forever: in the moment I’m writing this, the iceberg is melting. Some conditions changed and others will change soon, management changed, the most experienced colleagues of mine are leaving and so… it seems I don’t have many options: honestly, I already knew it wouldn’t have lasted forever, anyway. After all, we’re under continuous change and we’re simple animals: we act and react, escaping from discomfort/danger and trying to reaching out pleasure/stability (not to mention people always seeking for something new and exciting). And it’s not so bad, since this is also like the “final motivation” to push me to find a proper job in line with my education, experience and skills. Oh, well, skills: what are my current skills, what I forgot and what I need to review my old notes and practice again, as well as concepts to deepen/master?

Phase 1: self-assessment and comparison

Face the truth and follow the old advice: “Know thyself”. I don’t mean get lost in the never ending examination of your life (since “An unexamined life is not worth living”, Socrates was supposed to having said), but rather embrace a pragmatic approach in finding what you already know, in the context of preparation for your next job adventure.
Please, have in mind what physicist Richard Feynman once said, “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool“.
So, without judging yourself, be really honest and make a kind of initial situational analysis focusing on internal factors (yourself). It will give you a “sense of yourself” (in the context of the aspects useful for a new job) and it will be extremely useful for the phase 3.

Phase 2: review, declutter and prepare to study/practice

There’s no time to resolve all your internal conflicts and cognitive dissonances now, but it’s worth to:

• remember and practice mindfulness meditation (even just a few minutes of mindful breathing)
• think about your bad and good habits to change/stop/improve, including:
  • sleep (quantity and quality);
  • physical activity (at least a quick walk in the morning);
  • nutrition (healthy food and reduce/avoid junk/comfort food and alcohol);
  • rest and meditation;
• implement digital minimalism;
• prepare to focus, to immerge in long deep work sessions, where the state of flow will be your new standard.

In case, let your familiy and friends know that you are seriously going to long sessions of deep work without checking messages and/or answer your IM and phone (if you’re involved in serious family conditions such as parents in need, make sure they understand that they can call you only in case of emergency, for all the rest, they can just send a message since you have muted notification but not calls, so you’ll reply ASAP, like in pomodoro pauses or later).

If you have some courses, books, materials still in progress, evaluate if it’s the case to continue it (e.g.: useful for your preparation in this case), to delay it or to drastically reduce the amount of time and effort you’re spending on it. Be aware of the “sunk cost fallacy“: if you already spent days on something, but it’s not your priority now, you can simply put it away even at risk of losing it (but often it will be something you can continue in the future).
For example, I started a Coursera “specialization” (series of courses), Google Project Management. Should I complete it? Considering that the required effort to complete it is quite small (since I already know most of the concepts and I also have a lot of real experience in PM), plus it (the “certificate”) can be useful in my CV (aside other countless certificates), I’ll finish it.
I’m also currently reading 3 books, so I’m planning to finish one of them (“So good they can’t ignore you” by Cal Newport, more or less related to job search and work preparation and performance), while I’ll slow down with the others, not strictly related or strictly useful with the job search.

Whenever possible, try to get the most from your current job: prioritize tasks useful for your future job and minimize/delegate/delay what you feel unimportant.

Make clear to yourself that you are studying for reasons that go beyond the “need for a new job”, like:

• it will reduce your impostor syndrome and make you gain more self-confidence, useful also if you finally decide to indulge longer in your current job;
• challenge the dunning-kruger effect so you can climb after the valley of despair;
• because it’s somehow fun and interesting (after all, you’re searching for a job where you hope to like to spend a huge amount of time doing something you are interested into);
• challenge yourself and prove you can do it! I don’t suggest to try so hard like Ultralearning’s author Scott Young (the famous MIT computer science 12-months challenge), but anyway, try with a certain level of commitment and enjoy the state of flow during deep work!

Phase 3: know the required skills

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Yes, I wrote that war-related narrative is bad, but this famous quote explains well that you must know yourself, but also know what you’re facing (it’s not an enemy to defeat, but to “conquer”: the new job). After you already reviewed your skills (phase 1), it’s time to look outside, for example at job boards (e.g.: Linkedin, Indeed, companies websites’ “Career” section) where you can find (hopefully precise) job descriptions about role and required skills.

Collect minimum requirements and desidered ones in a data driven way, like a table where you can also count how many times something is required (advanced: you can also add a weight to multiply for, for example different companies/positions have different weight for you).
So, after you had collected a dozen of job positions you like, you will see where to begin to focus, starting with the most required skills (e.g.: if 9 companies out of 10 require knowledge of C++ language, prioritize it more than a skill required only in a couple of positions).

Phase 4: plan to study/practice and go for it!

Now you should be ready since you did the “diff” between what you already know and the level you want to achieve to be more confident and maximize the chance to be noticed by HR filters and pass the interviews.

Important: don’t fall in too over-confidence (like: “They said it’s important to know Python programming language: well, last year I was able to write sum_of_two_numbers.py, so I’m good”), but don’t go at the opposite of the spectrum like another victim that cry helplessy/hopelessy lying in the Dunning-Kruger’s valley of despair: don’t struggle trying to achieve perfection and remember that it’s actually impossible to know all the details of everything: you must understand the mechanism and the “first principles” that lies at the core of some methods/techniques and you should be able to perform some tasks as well as answer properly the question they’ll ask, but don’t spend too much time in extra-hidden details (e.g.: if it’s required to know SQL injections, don’t waste days in trying blind SQLi over extremely rare side channels, knowing the main types and real application would be enough), as well as don’t get lost in details of some functions in some tools (e.g.: there are some PowerTools in MS Excel that even some skilled senior data analysts are unaware of). So: it’s OK to go for the extra-mile, but not if you sacrifice time that could have been spent in understanding some other basic concepts. Resources are limited, specially time, so be careful while planning and allocating your preparation time (I don’t think I should remember the importance of planning: “If I had four hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first two hours sharpening the axe“, as someone said).

Try to cover theory and practice on:

• specific techniques and procedures;
• “collateral”/side/reusable/generic techniques (e.g.: programming for non-developers, data analytics, computer/network architecture and so on);
• high level (e.g..: project management, science of organizations, high-level frameworks and everything that gives you understanding of the “big picture”);
• a little bit of generic and higher level (e.g.: psichology including bias and mental models, understanding of social dynamics, geopolitics and other topics that hugely depends on what kind/level of job you’re searching for).

Phase 5: advice, networking and events

Maximize your exposure. Consider your online presence, try to enhance your network (you should have done it before, but it’s never too late to start/improve to “win friends” – “your net-work is your net-worth“), look for events nearby and online, engage in communities, ask mentor/friends to give you honest advice/guidance and don’t be afraid to ask help!

Phase 6: courage

“Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because, as has been said, it is the quality which guarantees all others” (Winston Churchill).

Without overthinking, even before completing your preparation (since actually it will end with your life: if you’re a “knowledge worker“, sure you know you’re “condamned” to a lifelong learning), contact the companies or the recruiters, tailoring your motivation letter and your resumé before submitting them.
I suggest starting from companies that, in case of negative results (rejecting your CV or in case you completely fail the interview), will not discourage you too much. But of course not a company that you really dislike: after all, you don’t want to completely wast your and their time, so maybe start with a company that you could finally consider like a possibility to work with. E.g.: if you’re looking for something to work in the luxury automotive sector and you aspire to work with Ferrari and Porsche, maybe you can try to apply first (to make practice) to BMW or Audi, not with a brand that you think is too far from your “final target” (like Dacia, without offending anyone, it’s just an example).
And by the way, remember that they’re not judging you as a person: they’re evaluating if you could be a good fit for their offered position (both for skills and cutlure). Rejection != (not equal) “you’re useless”: it could be that you just need to further sharpen your skills and then try again, in the same or other companies.
It could happen that someone will search for you if you have a good online exposure and lots of valuable experience, but it’s like almost everything in life: things don’t magically happen, you should actively search for them and then make the first move (it applies to health, love, family… you should take care, there’s rarely automation).

So now, without wasting more time, go and prepare for the new job! 🙂

Suggested: the article I wrote on “Searching for a job” and books like “So good they can’t ignore you” and Designing Your Life.