3 Reasons Why Summer IS A Great Time To Job Search

I hung up the phone with a client yesterday who said, “I am expecting the job search to be slow during the summer.” This struck a chord for me, since when I recruited, I found my busiest months were often during the summer and holiday periods—when most job seekers felt hiring activities slowed down during these times. Au contraire!

Now if you need a break, you need a break. Job searching on low energy is never a good idea, so if you need a vacation and can take one, just take one. Recharge your body and your job search. But if you are in job search mode already, don’t take your foot of the gas simply because the summer rolled around. I say kick it into gear for the following reasons I experienced when I recruited, that still ring true today:

(1) Competition drops significantly since other job seekers think it is slow and stop looking. You are simply up against much less competition during the summer. Those job seekers who stop looking during the summer I feel may also abide by the “buy high, sell low” mentality – they get in the market when everyone is in and get out when they think everyone is out. This herd mentiality is bad for investing and bad for job searching. Go the contrarian route and job search during the summer.

(2) The jobs open this time of year are really open! Why is that? Well, it is the summer…hiring managers want to take it easy during the summer, often take a vacation, have their staffs take vacation—they do not want to have to hire unless they really have to hire. If the hire could be put off until the fall, they would do so. Based on that fact then, if the job is open during the summer, it is a bona fide, most-likely-urgent, defined need to be filled.

(3) It is a real job opening. During the busier months, ads might get posted for wish list hires, newly created hires and strategic hires that can often not be as immediate of a need and can have nebulous definition as the team figures out the parameters for the role. When a need is a replacement and was unexpected, it was previously defined and easier to fill. Your professional resume will be more readily received when there is an immediate need.

Bottom line is there is no real good time to look or not look. Do not time the market. If you need to look for a job, you start to conduct a job search. If you are not feeling it and do not want to look, then do not look until you are ready. That is all there is to it. Do not succumb to the mental games of timing the job market to increase your success. If you have the right marketing documents, job search strategy and skill sets, you will find the right job for you in any market.

Thanks pasotraspaso for the great picture via Flckr.