Looking for a job during summer, good or bad idea?
While summer equals holidays in the sun (hopefully) for many, companies are not at a standstill and recruitment continues. If you're looking for a temporary, fixed or seasonal job and you want to develop your career, find out all our tips to find a job during the summer period!
Author: Thibaut Gollentz, Office Manager Strasbourg , reading time: 5 minutes
Recruitment continues
In July and August, the job market changes: while certain sectors such as tourism and the hotel industry are booming, offices and large cities are empty as employees take their holidays.
However, even in summer, many sectors continue to operate, particularly the Human Resources sector. Indeed, many companies are looking to be operational in September, and therefore new job offers are posted during the summer period. Since nowadays the recruitment process can take two or three months, recruitment for the month of September starts at the beginning of summer.
Moreover, July and August are often quieter months with fewer urgent matters to deal with and the people in charge of recruitment have a little more time to analyse the applications, CVs and cover letters, and to contact the candidates for interviews.
Applying in summer: our advice
Applying during summer is like applying at any time of the year, with some specificities. Here are our tips for finding a new job opportunity by applying during the summer period:
- Multiply the recruitment channels: as usual, to boost your chances of finding an offer that interests you, don't limit yourself to one channel: scan the advertisements and send your applications via the career sites and CV libraries of the companies you are targeting, job boards or professional social networks such as LinkedIn.
- Network: use personal and professional events to tell friends, acquaintances, colleagues and former employees about your situation. If you are attending a social event during your time off, it is perfectly appropriate to mention that you are looking for a job. Accept as many invitations as possible, both personal and professional. You never know who might be able to help you. Your relatives and colleagues are usually more than happy to do so.
- Adapt your CV and cover letter: remember to adapt both your CV and your cover letter to the position you are applying for, and do this for every application!
- Tell the recruiter about your availability. This is especially necessary during the summer period, if you are planning to go on holiday.
- Update your professional profiles: update the profiles of your professional networks. Also let recruiters and your network on LinkedIn know that you are looking for new professional opportunities. To do this, activate the #OpenToWork feature from your LinkedIn profile. Put all the chances on your side!
How do you continue your job search when you are on holiday?
If you are going on holiday this summer, you may be worried about being contacted at the wrong time, while you are on the plane to your holiday destination or while sunbathing on the beach.
In this case, without going into details, don't hesitate to point this out to the recruiter and ask them to call you back later, at a time more suitable for a professional discussion. Receiving a message of absence will not do you any harm either, simply call the recruiter back in a quiet place and make sure you have a good connection beforehand. In addition, this has the advantage of allowing you to reread the job offer, to prepare yourself for any questions they may ask and to bring your CV with you.
As you will have understood, your leave does not prevent you from continuing your job search. Telephone interviews or video-conferencing tools, there are now many technological solutions for responding to recruiters' requests.
Applying without wasting your holidays
If you are planning to continue your job search during your holidays, it is best to set limits to avoid spoiling your holidays, and perhaps even those of your family...
If you are actively searching, one idea is to limit the search to an hour a day (for example) to read the ads and apply to the ones that interest you. Also take the time to consult professional social networks from time to time, and create job alerts to receive the latest offers directly by email (and thus reduce your search time).
Is your sector not recruiting this summer?
If you notice that your sector is not recruiting much this summer and that there is a lack of relevant offers, don't remain inactive and take advantage of this to update your CV and your professional network profiles. This way, they will be ready the day you finally find an offer that interests you. In the meantime, why not look for training to improve your skills and thus optimise your chances of finding a new job?
Are you looking for a new job or for information on how to find your dream job? Find all our vacancies and career advice on hays.be.
