If your job search has left you a little discouraged this summer, don’t fret, the September Surge is coming.
“It’s a term that’s used to define the uptick in new job openings that appear between Labor Day through Halloween or November 1,” personal finance expert Cinneah El-Amin tells ESSENCE. She says that September Surge happens for a number of reasons. “New fiscal years begin in some industries around this time. Also, people are coming back from the Summer Slump, in that they’re returning from long-term vacations or sabbaticals and there is budget that needs to be allocated towards hiring. There’s a renewed interest in closing out as companies think towards Q4—there might be headcount that they need to firm up for their budgets which creates surge of opportunities. Lastly, recruiters might also have goals they haven’t met for their annual performance that the end of summer allows them to tackle. There are a couple of things that happen on a macro and micro level that really influence the September surge. But in general, job seekers can expect to see above average job openings from Labor Day through Halloween.”
El-Amin says there a few ways to leverage this surge in your favor.
Identify high paying transferable skills
“We tell ourselves as job seekers that we can only do certain types of roles because we’ve only ever been in those specific positions,” El-Amin tells ESSENCE. “A danger we should avoid is disregarding the skill sets we’ve either gained through education, experience, past jobs, freelance work, et cetera—they can all actually lead us to earning more money.”
She advises to get clear on identifying top paying skills, how to develop them within ourselves and connect that with what the role is looking for.
Start narrowing down job titles now
“When September surge happens, there’s going to be an overwhelming amount of jobs to sift through,” El-Amin warns. “So, spending the time now to really focus in on what, based on my skill set, are the top one, two, or three job titles that most closely align with what I can do is critically important. And notice I’m saying skills, I’m not saying degrees. “
Warm up your network
“This is probably the most important of all,” El-Amin says. “Job seekers make the big mistake of thinking in order to find a job, ‘I just need to update my resume and apply.’ When the reality is people in your network may have opportunities they want to help you with, but they don’t know you’re looking for them. So, warming up your network looks like creating a really targeted list of people that you’ve worked with in the past, maybe past mentors, coworkers bosses, people at other companies that are doing the work you want to do and starting to warm them up. Start building rapport with these people over the month of August so that if and when a new role appears during September surge, you’ve now already built a relationship with these individuals to then ask for a referral or get support as you apply.”
You can find Cinneah El-Amin at Flynanced.com.