Why
Wait Till Eventually?
By Daryl M. Williams
December 18, 2012
If I had a $1
for every time I heard a student or client indicate they were going to wait
until they graduated or until the holidays were over before beginning their
employment search, I would have a nice down payment on a near luxury vehicle.
Here’s the thing, folks: it really is a myth that hiring stops during the end
of the year.
We HAVE to go forth and conquer because depending
on where you look you will find data suggesting that the average time it takes
to earn a new job is 6 months to 1 year. For example, an article at AOL
indicates the average time is 7 months. AOL Job Length
Think about
that in terms of YOUR job hunt YOU just pushed back until you graduate
one year from now. If you thought you would waltz from the classroom to the
boardroom you may be in for a huge, unwelcome surprise. The same applies to the
holidays in terms of assuming companies are waiting. Here’s the thing, I get
it. People go on vacation, they have unused personal time to burn plus the
holiday parties. Well, companies also have budgets and for some departments you
use or lose those funds. What does that mean? It means companies will continue
to post jobs to CareerBuilder, Monster, Dice, and indeed.com will continue to
gather those jobs nicely and neatly for your perusal.
I don’t want
to bog you down with boring numbers, but…
·
According to the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey published
in September 2012, we are looking at the strongest Fourth Quarter Outlook in
Five Years: The Quarter 4 2012 Net Employment Outlook of 11% gain is the
strongest fourth quarter data collected since 2007.
·
A new survey of recruiters by online executive career network
ExecuNet says that 69% report place as many, or even more, candidates in
December as in any other month.
Why wait till eventually? Jobs are available now and if other
people want to take a holiday siesta let them…but you shouldn’t be that person.
Don’t stop the momentum you have been
building throughout the year. If you’re just starting, no one is telling you to
spend 8 hours a day looking for a job. But remember, YOU have to OWN your
career. So go ahead and go get that gift that won’t be there after the
holidays. Then go get the job and
the career you are looking for.
Mr. Williams,
ReplyDeleteWell said. I was blessed to be hired during this holiday season. I did not wait. I appreciate the message!
Brian,
DeleteThanks for your comment and you're a perfect example of someone who found success by doing what my article points out we should do and that is business as usual. Glad to hear you seized the opportunity and I wish you continued success.
Nicely said Mr. Williams. In my experiences as finance executive, I've seen an urgency to attract talent before the end of year. This is primarily due to the fact that the hiring managers don't have the funds in the proceeding year's budget for new hires. Similar to the vacation days, it is a use it or lose it scenario.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the Blog!
Thanks Eric,
DeleteI agree. When I was in the position of hiring manager or assisting in making those decisions we tended to want to ramp up in preparation for a goal and so didn't have the time to wait. If we start understanding our audience and what they're expectations are, it can make a tremendous difference in how we are perceived, the actions we take and results we see.