Dreaming of a New Executive Job? LinkedIn Says October is the Best Time to Look!
Recent LinkedIn blog posts and a CBS This Morning interview with LinkedIn’s Editor-In-Chief Dan Roth tell us that October is the month with the highest number of new job postings on LinkedIn’s website. And amazingly, 89 percent of hiring managers fill those open positions in less than four weeks!
With the unemployment rate at a 50-year low, it is a candidate’s market, and your competition for one of those openings will likely be lower as a result.
How to Take Advantage of the October Job Listings Flood
Some key insights from Dan Roth’s interview include:
Mondays are the best day to apply for a job. Roth says that a lot of hiring managers spend the week getting their job descriptions ready. This is when they put up the job descriptions and watch for resumes to begin arriving.
You are more likely to land the position if your resume is among the first 25 received.
To be competitive, make sure your LinkedIn profile is optimized.
To be visible, share actively via posts, comments, and articles about things you are an expert in, create a full list of your skills, and NETWORK. “If you are just relying on a piece of paper, you're doing it wrong,” says Roth. “The most important thing is to be out there.”
Specific Actions You Can Take on LinkedIn to Maximize Your Job Search
LinkedIn blog contributor Catherine Fisher also has some great advice about how to take advantage of the fall hiring season in her post “A New Holiday to Celebrate: Fall Hiring Season”:
She advises job seekers to:
Tailor your search through LinkedIn’s search tool. Use search filters to narrow things down by function, industry, company, or keywords. LinkedIn does help you with this by making search suggestions based on your profile.
Be the first to jump on new postings: By far the most job postings are made on Mondays, so set up Job Alerts so you can be among the first 25 to apply (statistics show you are three times more likely to be the winning candidate).
Pay attention to the “Skills” section on your profile: Fisher says that 85% of employers rate skill sets as increasingly important, and 90% consider vetting these skills as crucial in hiring. You can validate your skills using a new feature called LinkedIn Skill Assessments. Early results on this are promising: a 30% greater likelihood of hire when you have a completed LinkedIn Skill Assessment.
Prep thoroughly for the interview. LinkedIn’s new Interview Prep Tools that were introduced last June can help you be ready for everything from tough questions to technical snafus. They will assist you in honing your interviewing skills, and you can even send a video recording to members of your network to solicit feedback.
Best and Worst Times of Year to Job Search
While there is a hiring spree in September and October, perhaps prompted by urgency to use up budget before the fiscal year for many companies ends or the flurry of activity provided by a new fiscal year and budget, there are other good and not-so-good times of year to be looking for a new executive job:
January and February: Traditionally, January and February have been considered top months for job search. Companies and recruiters are raring and ready to go after the holiday season, many have new budgets if their accounting is based on the calendar year, and they have goals for the new year based on new budgets and sales forecasts. January does tend to start slow, but it typically ramps up by about mid-month and roars in February. Be aware that competition will be greater, though, as this is when most job seekers launch a search.
Springtime: A fair amount of hiring is going on but early spring is better than late spring.
Summer: Hiring does seem to take a vacation during the summer months of June, July, and August, when HR budgets are exhausted, the focus is on generating end of fiscal year reports, and hiring managers and key decision makers are on vacation. However, Revature has a somewhat contrarian view, that summer may actually be the BEST time to job hunt.
November and December: These are months when hiring is usually slow, BUT since most candidates think it is not worth looking then or their attention is diverted by holiday activities, you can gain a competitive advantage for those jobs that are available.
Glass Door has a good discussion about the best and worst times to conduct a job hunt, The Best and Worst Times to Job Hunt by Season.
You can watch the CBS segment about the October hiring spree, with an extensive interview with Dan Roth by clicking through to the link below:
Don’t Miss Out: Tune Up Your Executive Resume and LinkedIn Profile
LinkedIn has 20 million jobs. That’s 20 MILLION!
If you have any interest in changing jobs in the near future, make sure you don’t miss out on the year’s busiest hiring month. Tune-up that executive resume and LinkedIn profile!