Your New Job "To Do" List

Starting a new job?

Use this handy checklist of things you'll need to do:

1. Make a good impression on new co-workers.
2. Send your new email address to everyone in your network.
3. Start looking for your next job.

No, we're not crazy, just reading the latest survey from MRINetwork, which finds that 15 percent of people look for new opportunities as soon as they start a job.

The survey also found that 16 percent of people try to wait a year or two before looking again. The rest of you wait until you're dissatisfied.

Wait. Even in a horribly nerve-wracking economy, we wait until we're unhappy to start looking? Yes, the same survey, conducted in September 2006, statistically showed the same results.

"Conventional wisdom has always said that in a shaky economy, workers will be extremely hesitant to changing jobs, fearing that if layoffs occur after the jump they'll be the first to go," says Tony McKinnon, president of MRINetwork.

But he doesn't think that's really the case. The economy hasn't made candidates any less likely to consider new positions than they have in the past, he contends, "and getting an employed candidate's attention can be the hardest part."