Author: dvillalobos

Level Up Your Job Search Game This Fall

Are you embarking on a fall job search? Some times of the year are more fruitful for job seekers than others, but the real game changer in your job search is a personal one: your confidence.

Here are insider tips on timing your efforts for maximum impact and how to level up your fall job search game.

Seasonal Hiring Trends

Understanding the ebb and flow of the hiring cycle helps you leverage your efforts and improve your response rate. Fall can be an excellent time to find a new job, but only if you get it going before the holiday rush.

Companies are gearing up for the year-end in the fourth quarter. If they have vacancies, there’s usually a push to fill them before the holiday slowdown. This rush makes fall an opportune time for job seekers.

If your fall job search doesn’t yield the position you want, January and February are considered the best time to find a job. The post-holiday positivity, combined with new budgets and projects, means many employers are searching for qualified candidates.

Conversely, summer, particularly August, can be as challenging as the holidays for job hunting. Between vacations and the back-to-school rush, hiring takes a backseat.

Know When To Submit Your Resume for Maximum Impact

While your qualifications, experience and skills distinguish your application, knowing when to hit that “submit” button gives you an advantage.

Sending in your resume over the weekend can backfire. Resumes sent on a Saturday or Sunday often land in a stack of other applications.

Like most professionals, hiring managers have a weekly rhythm. The best time to send in your stand-out resumes is Tuesday through Thursday, when hiring managers have gone through the weekend pileup and can review incoming resumes with a focused mind.

You can use the weekend to find job listings and prepare your applications, but strategically wait until Tuesday morning to submit them. The exception might be a time-sensitive posting where you can be one of the first submissions.

The Employment Edge

When is the best time to find a new job? When you already have one.

Whatever time of year you’re looking, the best moment to land your dream job is when you feel empowered and self-assured.

Being employed provides a safety net and boosts your confidence, making you a more attractive candidate to potential employers. When you feel secure, you communicate more positively and are better in interviews.

If you don’t have a job, you can still give yourself an edge by maintaining a positive mindset or by leveraging the expertise of a recruiter. Harnessing this “Employment Edge” can tilt the scales in your favor and help employers see your strengths.

Ready to boost your job search? Connect with one of our recruiters today.

 

Your Guide to Creating a Successful Company Onboarding Program

Starting a new job used to mean confirming a start date and hoping there was an available desk when you arrived. But now, onboarding is often a much more detailed and thoughtful process — or at least it should be. Giving newcomers the support they need upfront helps them quickly ramp up in their role and strengthens company culture by making people feel welcome and valued.

Designing and implementing a great onboarding program takes work, but it is well worth it to boost your employees’ productivity and morale. It also provides continuity between the recruiting process that convinced them to join and the reality of the job — prospects are often looking for red flags and inconsistency or disorganization is one of them.

Here are some great onboarding principles that will help employees get a running start in contributing to your business goals.

Start Before the Start Date

It’s never a good idea to ask employees to start working before their first day, but there are things you can have them do in advance that will help everyone involved.

This works well for tasks such as filling out payroll and benefits paperwork, which will get important information into your systems and prevent delays in employee paychecks and perks. Before the start date is also a good time to schedule a team lunch (virtual or in person) for the new member’s first week, and you should prepare and send a preliminary schedule for their first few days so they know what to expect.

Another benefit of productive advance communication is that it signals to your new employees that your company is organized and excited for them to join the team.

Build in Opportunities To Derive and Create Value Right Away

New employees need to get up to speed on many things quickly, but it is both overwhelming and ineffective to rely on written material you hope they’ll read and absorb. Instead, create a more dynamic learning program that includes some combination of 1:1 meetings with leaders and/or team members, workshops on topics important to the business and a clear picture of your expectations for their first week, month and three months.

At the same time, it’s important for new employees to feel that they’re adding value even as they’re on a learning curve. Identify projects they can own and deliver a piece of within their first week or two. This doesn’t mean throwing them into the deep end without support, but it does set them up for an early win that can build confidence and enable ongoing success.

Prioritize Mentorship

Everyone expects new employees to have a lot of questions, but the newest team members might not know whom or how to ask. This is why every newcomer should be paired with a more tenured colleague they can turn to with everything from “Where’s the coffee?” to “What could my career path look like here?”

Ideally, a mentor is someone with more experience both at the company and in the industry who doesn’t directly manage the new employee. The official relationship could last for a week, a month or a year, but there’s no better way to establish a positive, career-nurturing culture and integrate new employees from the get-go.