The Christmas period is now behind us, not even the tiniest morsel of mince pie remains. New Year’s resolutions have been made and straightaway broken and the cold, dark winter months are very much here to stay. However, even if you have broken that New Year’s resolution to eat healthily with a Big Mac or not yet been to the gym, the new job can still be ticked off the resolution list.
In 2013, the 7th January was declared ‘National Job Hunt Day’ as a staggering 11.8 million people began looking for a new role.
But is January a good time to begin your job search?
The simple answer is yes. Yes it is.
Without wanting to add to a growing pile of ‘new year, new you’ clichés; applying for a new job in January certainly can have positive psychological effects. Starting or coming back to a job search when you feel more relaxed after some well-deserved time off can really help you get into the ‘fresh start’ mind set.
And this fresh start is not just true of you. The majority of businesses have new budgets in place come January. So, that lull in recruitment you may have experienced and become disheartened by in the run up to Christmas is no more. New budgets means more money for recruitment. More money for recruitment, means more vacancies.
The bad news: the competition has increased. Those other 11,799,999 hungry jobseekers have all started applying to those newly opened vacancies.
Don’t let this put you off.
Assess your skills.
Take a look back at 2014. What have you achieved? What are you most proud of? What are your skills? Make sure your CV is up to date.
Ask yourself, where do you want to work? What do you want to do? These are two questions you must ask in order to make 2015 the year that you get the job you want and will be happy doing. Do your skills match up to the job you want? If not then it’s time to do something about it. Make yourself stand out from the crowd.
Network.
Make sure your Linkedin profile is up to date and showcases your best talents to increase your visibility to recruiters. Make connections and talk to people – you never know where there might be a vacancy.
And all importantly – stay positive! With so many new vacancies, remember this is the right month to start searching.
