GUEST COMMENT: How to look for jobs over the summer
Even though recruitment activity slows during the holiday season, it's a myth that there are no jobs out there in the summer months.
Good roles are available and you definitely shouldn't be put off from looking. You never know when your ideal job might come to market, so it pays to keep searching.
Pro-activity is key in the summer and professionals who actively follow up on opportunities tend to have the most success. Keeping in constant contact with your recruitment consultant is a good start to ensure you are first to know about all the roles coming onto the market.
If there are companies you want to work for, make sure your consultant knows as a good consultancy can actively target them on your behalf. Not all decision makers are on holiday and it can be a quieter time to get a CV in front of a hiring manager. Follow up with phone calls to your recruiter or to any firms you have approached directly and don't just rely on email - you need that extra bit of determination to be front of mind.
Networking is key
With the better weather there tends to be a lot of industry-specific networking events held over the summer. Attending as many of these as possible increases your chances of building a good list of contacts and hearing about opportunities in the market.
Once you have made initial contact, you will need to be patient and shouldn't become disheartened if the process does not move as quickly as you would like. Just because you do not hear anything initially, it does not necessarily mean recruiting organisations are not interested. The key is to be persistent where you think a genuine opportunity exists.
If you do secure interviews over the summer you might also need to be more flexible than at other times of the year. Professionals prepared to take leave to meet all the people they need to on one day - rather than separately arranging them all before or after work - will definitely put themselves ahead of the competition by speeding the recruitment process up.
