In life timing is everything: it’s all about knowing when to stay and when to go, when to propose, when to place your lottery lucky dip . . . it’s exactly the same when seeking a job.
Traditionally, January and February have always been the best months of the year to look for a new role. Recruitment and HR managers are keen to begin splurging their new year budgets and most of their intended targets have arrived back in the workplace from festive breaks – not so much full of the joys anymore as full of a desire for fresh challenges with a different company.
Add on top of this the fact many employers will also be facing a recruitment backlog because of the holiday hiatus.
But we can you let you in on a little-known secret: December is also a momentous month to visit s1jobs and get a head start on the competition.
Why? Well, there are a variety of very good reasons.
Firstly, some companies’ accountants will want HR to move swiftly through sorting applications and interviews so they can make you an offer and have a new member of the team in place before the end of the year and an unspent budget.
Another reason is, although recruitment naturally slows down during the holidays, with lots of people enjoying festivities instead of job searching, HR teams still have targets to meet, including crossing off currently open positions.
In fact, if you search s1jobs right now, you’ll see plenty of recently posted vacancies waiting to be filled.
Here’s a top tip: if you do apply for a position and get an “out of office” reply, don’t panic. This doesn’t mean everyone’s at the office party or the entire HR team has flown off to Hawaii until Hogmanay.
Whatever job you’re going for, it might simply be that the company is particularly busy right now. Perhaps the warehouse manager and operators are all flat-out fulfilling orders, or the admin assistants are fully focused on wrapping everything up (including the Secret Santa presents) before the end of the year.
What you should do, if you don’t get any confirmation, is follow up your online application with a phone call. It’s vital your chosen organisation knows of your interest and your details are logged.
This way they know you’re there, you’re keen and you’re willing to take the time to come in and be interviewed, even in the run-up to Christmas.
Of course, from your own perspective, it pays to take full advantage of a time of the year when many other would-be applicants are simply not focused and competition is lower than normal.
If employers aren’t getting as many applications for their roles, yours is more likely to go straight to the top of the pile.
So act now and apply for one of the vacancies currently on s1jobs. You could be giving yourself an early Christmas present.