Why July is critical for your job search

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It's July – a month synonymous with BBQ, sunshine and good times for most people, including hiring managers.

However, if you're in the job search and hoping to land a job by the end of the year, July should be synonymous with opportunity and increased activity. It's definitely not the right time to take a mental vacation from your job search.

Vacation mentality

Hiring is seasonal in nature and July happens to be a very slow month because most people are in vacation mode. Out of office responses are the theme of the month.

This vacation mentality causes hiring at many companies to be at a lull until late August when everyone's back in the office and focused on filling job openings. Thus, the smart job seeker should take advantage of this lull and focus on brushing up the resume for August.

This July lag in hiring will often mean recruiters have less pressure on them to fill roles, creating more time for reading over resumes and finding the best talent for the autumn rush.

Seasonal advantage

So what does this mean for the job seeker? It's important that the job seeker be prepared to blast into the end of August by taking advantage of this knowledge around hiring seasonality. This is especially true if the job seeker's goal is to land a new job before the end of the year.

Seasonality will also work against job seekers in the winter months. The onset of the winter holiday means slowdown, leaving job seekers with less than six months of prime hiring.

If you're not sure how or where to start here's some simple advice to help you capitalise on hiring seasonality:

Take a serious look at your resume and have others do so as well. Seek out honest feedback, specifically around formatting. As a rule of thumb, if the reader asks a lot of questions about any of the information when trying to make sense of it, you may have a confusing resume. Clear up any confusion by saying what you mean using strong, high-impact writing and basic word formatting tools (bold, italics, underline). Rewrite, tailor, and tweak to the job posting to ensure content is relevant and you will be ahead of the game.

Get your much-needed rest and relaxation sparingly and be sure and use this hiring downtime to start getting those applications out there! If you're not confident in your writing abilities, recruit the help of a resume writer. You'll be glad you did.

Original article: Articlesbase.com