You work hard all year.
With every line of code, every deployment, every drip of sweat, what kept you (reasonably) sane was the vision of one and one thing only: summer vacations. Ahhh, vacations: the magical place where meetings, reporting, and objectives are replaced by sand, a cold beverage, and doing absolutely nothing. No work-related thoughts can get you while you’re there, right?
A whole lot of this.
And yet, here I am, being a holiday Grinch, to tell you this is the best time of the year to think about how your career is progressing, and especially if you should be doing something different. Look at it as the… 🌴Summer of Jobs🌴 (patent pending).
My goal is to remind you of 5 reasons that make the summer a great season to go into reflection mode and start looking for an awesome new job:
1. Vacation Time Is Reflection Time
While you’re at work, your mind is so occupied with all the KPI’s and deadlines that there’s no time to take a step back and just think about what you’re doing and whether you’re taking any value from it. When you get home after those long days at the office, of course you don’t want to be thinking about your career; you just need to get away from it all (insert “Netflix and Chill” joke).
Being on vacations changes all of that, because for a while you’re out of the storm and have the time to reflect on hard topics like your progress in this past year or what you expect to accomplish in the near future. Another advantage of doing it at this point is to have the capacity of distancing yourself from your work situation and have a clearer, high-level view of what is going on.
Only when you are in this position will you make rational, motivation-based decisions that are ultimately in your best interest.
2. The Market Is Deserted
Since a lot of job seekers assume the summer is a bad time of year to look for a job, they stop searching. That means there’s less competition for those who do make the effort — and that can be you!
Just imagine all the recruiters, dragging themselves across the sand looking for some candidates, and suddenly there it is: a freaking oasis. And it’s you — yes, you! Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating, but indeed there are advantages in operating countercyclical with the rest of the mob.
3. Companies Are Still Moving
The summer especially is a good timing for a reflection pause because companies are doing the same on their side. Only by this point do they find some breathing space in their activity to think about the current state of their team, plan the second semester projects, and figure out the professionals needed to fulfill them — and they have more time to interview them.
If you can pair your reflection cycle with the one of the companies you have an interest in, the match is natural: you know what you want for your career and they know what they need for their projects, turning the probability for those to overlap much higher.
4. Your CV Will Thank You
I would imagine you’re probably not a contemporary novelist when it comes to communicating with companies. Well, at least the lines of your CV don’t come as easy as the lines of your code. But what we found here at Landing.jobs is that many of the employers look at your cover letter and curriculum as decisive factors to engage with you in an interview process, since it shows the dedication you put into knowing the company, the position, and the added value your presence might add.
Well, maybe a little more sophistication is required.
And guess who now has the time to bring together all these things: you and all your free vacation time!
5. Companies are hiring now
Many companies (namely the big names in IT) choose September as the major starting point for new team members. Guess what that means? The recruitment will happen in the months preceding them, the aforementioned… 🌴Summer of Jobs🌴™
After reading this article, you’ll be one of the few people applying for a job instead of heading to the beach, so you’ll instantly be ahead of the competition for the positions you choose. Doesn’t it all make sense?
The action is on you now: are you willing to take the time, reflect on your career and, who knows, try to find something better? If so start applying for jobs right now!
And remember: if you have any feedback, make sure to get back to us. Let’s do it?
BONUS: Tech a Break with Landing.jobs
You know what goes really well with job applications? Doing a checkup of your skills and having industry experts giving you some pro tips on how to improve your chances of finding the perfect job.
Does this sound like a wave you’d like to catch? 😉
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