January Is The Biggest Job Hunting Time of the Year

January is here and it’s time to get your next job.

Every year Q1 rolls around and budgets reset.

Signaling the time to jump on the job search bandwagon and get your next opportunity.

Did you spend your November and December networking as much as possible? To be honest, networking over eggnog is a lot of fun. Plus during the holiday’s people tend to be a little more generous.

January Is The Power Job Hunter Time

Now that we’re in January, what do you need to focus on for your job search?

Your conventional job search will be shotgunning as many resumes as possible. Clicking through the internet until your index finger has callouses.

You can always find jobs this way, but its definitely a more difficult path.

Remember, 80% of all job applications get filtered by ATS (Applicant Tracking Software).

[Obvious Plug: Of course our resume writing services get through the robot filters!]

Then half of those gets filtered by HR reps.

Then a handful of candidates get seen by a decision-maker.

Time To Jump the Fence

If it’s the busiest hiring time of the year, that means competition is also at its peak. Then it becomes critical to use any means of getting around the filtering systems in place.

The two primary filters you want to jump over are ATS software and HR reps.

The first is the great hoop on fire everyone has to jump through — job application software.

It’s run by robots and is the reason so many great candidates slip through the cracks. Never getting a callback or interview.

Even if you have a great resume the style or formatting could have been problematic.

Or not enough keywords.

Or your title(s) don’t match the job description.

Or whatever weird thing finicky software can do that means you don’t get seen.

I Don’t Care About HR

The second hoop is HR reps.

The odd thing is, so much of job search advice focuses on HR. This is because a lot of it comes from HR.

They are subject matter experts for themselves.

My job is to get my clients a job as fast as possible. Therefore job search becomes about the result and not about a gatekeeper.

That’s all HR is; an advanced filtering mechanism before you get to the hiring manager.

(I still love you HR reps!)

RELATED: Is AI Killing Job Search and Why Humans Still Matter

Get To The Person That Matters

If job applications and HR are the least important aspects of job search, then what is?

The people that make decisions.

I know I hammer this point a lot, but it is the most powerful mind shift you can have in your job search. Get to the person that matters — get to the hiring manager.

Or the hiring manager’s boss!

Either way, if you have the ear of the decision-maker. Or at least get someone to hand delivery or email your resume to them. Then you can jump right over the ATS filters and the HR rep.

Honestly, you can have the worst resume in the world and get the job.

None of it matters when you are talking to the person most relevant for deciding if you get the job or not.

How To Get To The Hiring Manager

So how do you get in front of the decision-maker?

As always, the first is to network as much as possible.

Reach out to every single person in your industry you know.

Post on Facebook with a link to your LinkedIn profile that you are looking for a job in your field.

And Twitter and Snapchat and TikTok.

Wherever your people are, let them know you are job hunting.

Then have real conversions with those people and get connected to more people in your field. The best case being those in a position a step or two above you. Which increases the chances of talking to a decision-maker. Or at least someone with influence.

This is the bread and butter of networking and power job hunting.

Simple and old school.

Of course, we can apply a thousand new and old techniques to amplify this, but the principals stay the same.

So get out there, make connections, and get in front of your next boss!

Good luck and happy hunting.

I’m Juan Martin. This is FastJobHunter.

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