One important aspect to transitioning is the timing of the process. In your experience or opinion, is there a particularly better quarter or period that is better for most companies for hiring? Or is it just typically normal for consistency spread across the year?
In my situation I am considering February 2016 but looking at maybe pushing it to March 1 in order to have January and February for interviews and avoiding the December month for interviewing. Thoughts or suggestions?
Answers
HI Stephen,
I agree with both sets of advice given above, particularly that from Pat. However, companies and organizations have different fiscal years. So his advice applies primarily to those companies which follow a calendar year for their fiscal year. Many companies operate on their own fiscal years, but follow the pattern he shows above for their own calendars. But the pattern he shows seems to be typical of most companies. Unfortunately, our financial disciplines favor quarterly results and rarely are enlightened enough to plan longer term. That is more the case with larger, publicly traded companies than private companies. But even companies which are held by holding companies tend to be short-sighted in their financial planning. So, my advice is to do all your investigation work in the first quarter and all the contact work in the second quarter. Good luck!
Hi Stephen,
I have been in the Staffing Industry working with many different industries (information technology, healthcare, telecom, government, aerospace) for a while now and have watched this trend over the years. I've also helped with a local Transition Assistance Program and have given this same advice... Keep in mind this is just my opinion.
Q1 (Jan-Mar) - companies are finalizing their budget and starting to figure out who they can hire. Interviews start...
Q2 (Apr-Jun) - companies are in full hiring mode, this is the time to staff up for the year.
Q3 (Jul-Sep) - companies are in maintain mode - only hiring remaining positions and backfills of those positions that have been vacated.
Q4 (Oct-Dec) - companies are in reduce mode to help their budget. hires in this quarter are typically because there is a vacant need. Retail is a different beast because they stock up on staff during this quarter then let most go after the holidays.
I hope this helps...
Pat
Stephen, I think your time frame is a good one. Obviously this is in a general sense, some of your timing has to coincide with the industry you are looking at becoming part of. In my opinion you are on the right track continue to do your research.
Except Dec which is slow for most, it depends on industry.
But even more important, boom years, better to search in 2007 or 2010 than in 2008/2009. Use no stock market crash in last 12 months and go.
In your case start early Jan (now), do not worry about weeks.
Amit
It can depend a little on the industry you are looking at. Due to budget cycles and the need to close out the books many government jobs are hired at the end of the year, for example. I actually found an interesting article on Monster about this topic: http://career-advice.monster.com/job-search/getting-started/job-search-recruitment-cycles/article.aspx
The other thing to consider is your competition. Most college grads graduate in the May timeframe, so there will be many people looking just prior to this time. Good luck.
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