As winter is fast approaching so follows the recruiting slow-down season. Most job seekers do not realize that winter is the slowest season for recruiting in most companies. We must note that we are not including traditional seasonal hiring; including retail employees, Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas stores, etc… This is from the full-time employee perspective.
Why is winter the recruiting slow season? It is because during the end of the year, human resources professionals are wrapping up the year. This could include year-end bonuses, compensation reviews/raises, yearly projects, benefits open-enrollments and much more. Because of all of these various tasks, recruiting typically moves to the back burner and thus slows down.
This can be frustrating to the job seeker because you essentially lose 2-3 months in your job search. But fear not!
We have a few tips that can help you out.
- Update your resume: You need to be sure your resume is being viewed. Because HR is not dedicating that much time to recruiting in the winter, you need to be sure that the little time that is, your resume is the one they are looking at. We can help you with this!
- Expand that network: LinkedIn has made networking so easy in today’s world. It has removed the human element from it, but that should not deter you from branching out. Use the winter to meet new people, join new groups and connect with people in your industry. We discuss the importance of making yourself an employee referral in a recent article.
- Pick up the telephone: My opinion is this…since the invention of texting, people no longer enjoy talking to other people on the telephone. There may be nothing more that can hurt your chances of landing the job more than this. You must be talking to people in your industry, speaking to HR professionals at prospective companies (same with the hiring managers) and most importantly; strangers. Don’t be shy. The more people you talk to, the more people will know you. The more people who know you, the better odds you will have.
- Build a job search routine: Everyone has different routines for searching for a job. There is no right or wrong way so long as you are applying to jobs.
- Be in the right frame of mind: Winter as a whole can be quite gloomy and you can’t let it bring you down. This is why networking is so important. It’s not all about speaking to HR and hiring managers. It’s also connecting with like-minded job seekers and working together. Find family, friends and neighbors who are going through what you are going through and share past successes together. You never know what you may learn from and who they may know that can help you.
As mentioned above, winter can be quite slow for recruiting, but that’s no reason to let up pressure. Use these tips to heat up the winter job search.
