In addition to all the resume tailoring, cover letter writing, and interview preparation, there is another kind of thinking and effort that accompanies the search for a job in a new organization. As with apartment hunting, there are matters of timing to consider.
In an ideal world, one would find a job that begins a couple of days after the set end date of one’s current position. That would make the transition akin to stepping from the deck of one ship at sea to another. It is problematic if the new organization wants you earlier than the old one would prefer. Worse, it is possible to end up with an unwanted gap between two good options: akin to spending a spell of time floundering around in the ocean, waiting for your location to converge with that of an appealing vessel.
Things are even more complicated, naturally, if one is moving cities as well as jobs. Still, I am confident that everything will come into alignment in my case, and I will find myself doing meaningful, climate-related work sometime around the beginning of July.
The logistical troubles only get more worrisome, as the need to find a job becomes more urgent.