Will a prospective employer wait 3 months..?

[JobConfusion]

My friend is 5 months into a 6 month probation period at a new job which she hates as it's a long drive and long hours. The notice period during the 6 months induction period is 1 week, after that is 3 months.

She's been applying for jobs, had a couple of interviews but no offers yet. She's wanting to either reduce her hours, work closer to home, or work from home - the combination of a 45 minute drive and 40 hour week is too much for her with young children. She enjoys the job enough but the hours and location are making her resent the job. She'd like to do something similar, but similar jobs don't come up that often. It's not a very well paid job, and from speaking to others in similar roles in other companies, it's not typical to have a 3 month notice period in that area.

We've talked about it today and we've come up with 2 options. But she's not sure what's the best one.

A) Keep applying for jobs, and hope that when she gets offered something else, they will wait 3 months for her to be able to start.

B) Keep applying for jobs, but if she doesn't have an offer by the end of the 6 month induction period, resign then as she only has to give a week's notice so is able to put 100% time and energy into applying for jobs, and will be more attractive to a prospective employer as she can start straight away.

What would you do?

Yes employers will wait three months. It's a perfectly normal notice period.

I'd wait and do the notice. I'd rather wait for an employee to start than question why they had an employment gap.

For me, leaving at the end of a probation period screams 'didn't perform well'.

For what it is worth I have very recently offered someone a job who was in exactly the same situation - just signed off probation and 2 month notice period. He spoke with his employers and agreed a 2 week notice period. More often than not contracts stipulate a really long notice period that in reality noone abides by. My own notice period is 12 weeks, if I was to leave I would offer 4 max.
From an employers prospective it is never worth the hassle of enforcing such a period if the employee is going to leave anyway.

I've only ever had professional roles with 3 to 6 months resignation periods, and new employers have always waited for me! Indeed some have been very accommodating and allowed me additional time for planned travel that I have had.

It's always easier getting a new job when in a job.

Option a -you can always try and negotiate a shorter notice period.

A

3 months is normal these days in a responsible office role. 6 months would be normal for really senior management or niche technical roles which couldn't be replaced easily, e.g. head of operations or IT security or something.

typically most 3 month notice periods would be negotiated anyway.. my org typically releases people based on need.. i.e. if they've found your replacement, they might agree to let you go within a month or two.. if not, or they need a good handover, they might stick to the 3 months... i wouldn't just assume that the 3 month applies...think of it as a worst-case scenario..