New Year, New Job! Make 2020 Your Year

Firstly, let us start by saying a Happy New Year! We hope you thoroughly enjoyed the festive season and you’re starting 2020 feeling refreshed and full of motivation. Although, if you’re experiencing the post-Christmas blues, you’re not alone. We’re here to help you get motivated and use the New Year as your opportunity to land a new job.

Is the New Year a Good Time to Look for a New Job?

We’re often asked, when is the best time of year to look for a new job? And if you’re looking for an answer to this question, we have both, good and bad news for you.

The Good News

The beginning of the year is the time of year when many companies are setting their goals and budgets for the new year and assessing skills gaps within the business that need to be filled. This means there are likely to be more jobs available in January and February than at any other time of year. From that perspective, the New Year is a great time for finding and starting off well in your new job.

The Bad News

However, it’s not just companies that are goal setting. When so many of us have time away from our jobs over the festive season, we tend to focus on the negative. That’s why so many of us make it our New Year’s resolution to find our dream job.

So the answer is yes, it is true that there are many more jobs to choose from at this time of year. However, you should be aware that there is also increased competition from other job seekers. So here are our top tips to help you stand out above the crowd and take the stress out of your New Year’s job search.

Review Your Skills and Experience

What have you been doing since you last updated your CV? Is your most recent experience listed on there? Would it make you stand out to potential employers as being someone they should hire? If you’re not sure, one of our expert Recruitment Consultants would be happy to review your CV for you and give you a few pointers if you need it.

Update Your Social Media Profiles

Of course, the most obvious social media platform for job seekers is LinkedIn. Updating your LinkedIn profile is a great way of saving yourself time and stress by job hunting passively. What this means is that potential employers and Recruiters come and find you instead of you having to go and look for them.

In order to achieve success with this job-hunting method, make sure your LinkedIn profile matches the experience on your CV. Any discrepancies could cause a few raised eyebrows if you make it to interview stage.

Don’t forget about the other social media platforms too. Did you know that you can apply for jobs through Facebook with just one click? Of course, you need to update your work history on there first and make sure to adjust your settings so that potential employers only see the information you want them to see. However, once this is done, this is a super quick method of applying for jobs.

If you are on Twitter, Instagram, or any other platforms, make sure you update those too. Incorrect or out of date information can make you appear disorganised. With a surprising number of employers looking at social media profiles as part of their pre-employment checks, it’s important to keep yours up to date.

Research Your Niche

Before you start your job search, be sure to research what’s going on in your area of the jobs market. Technology is advancing at quite a rate and creating new opportunities as a consequence.

Digital Transformation, for example, has created a whole world of opportunities that exist somewhere in between the IT and Marketing sectors. Doing your research at this early stage of your job search may open your eyes to opportunities you may not otherwise realise are available.

Register for Job Updates

It’s not just technology that’s moving fast. Advances in technology mean that jobs move quickly too so it’s important to keep up to date with job alerts the moment new jobs are advertised. Fortunately, this is super easy to do. By registering for personalised job updates matching your skills you can stay ahead of your competition and be first in the queue to apply for your dream job.

Practice Your Interview Skills

Friends and family can be really helpful when applying for a new job. Anticipating the questions you might be asked in a job interview and having answers pre-prepared in advance will set you apart from your competition.

Make 2020 Your Year!

So although there may be more competition around at this time of year, there will be many more jobs to choose from than at any other time. But by following our tips above, you should give yourself an advantage over your job hunting rivals and secure yourself a job offer in no time at all.

Do you have any questions about job hunting in the new year or tips that might help others out? We would love to hear from you in the comments below.