"This Is The Time To Look For A Job": Here's Why Recruiters Are Saying The "September Surge" Is Coming
Job searching is almost never easy, but lately I've been seeing some online chatter that we're heading into one of the best times of the year to land a new job. From TikTok to Instagram to X, formerly known as Twitter, people are talking about the upcoming hiring season, calling it the "September surge."
I first encountered this term last August when Dan Space (@dan_from_hr) posted a TikTok letting people know that this hot hiring moment was about to arrive. In case he hasn't graced your feed, you should know that Dan is a senior HR pro with over two decades of experience in corporate America, and he also contributed some really great insights in our guide to refreshing your dusty old résumé for 2023.
In the original video, Dan explains, "The first week of September after Labor Day up until about Halloween is one of the best times to look for work — many of us nicknaming this time the September surge. Please make sure your LinkedIn is updated with the right keywords, the right keyword strings, and a strong headline. This is the time you're going to start being contacted by a lot of recruiters as they look to finish up their end-of-the-year closes."
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♬ original sound - DanFromHR
@dan_from_hr / Via tiktok.com
Some commenters chimed in to share that they've landed jobs during this time:
While those on the hiring side admitted that they'd been slow over the summer and were expecting to ramp up:
Dan told BuzzFeed that he first noticed hiring picking up in September way back in 2009: "This was the year after the economy crashed, so we were curious on how we all of a sudden had started making significant hiring decisions. We began to uncover all of it — managers that had been somewhat lazy with candidate review had turned aggressive, and all the roles that were approved for the year that we had staggered were now being reviewed and posted. We assumed it was a result of the business picking up, as we had made several large deals that year, but then we started noticing it every year."
Once he noticed the September surge, he realized it came up like clockwork: "We'd hire slow in January and February, decent in March, high in April and May, plummet in June and July, and August became the calm before the storm as September and October skyrocketed. I began noticing this trend at every single company — and it was even MORE apparent if the company had a presence in Europe." Not me with a tear in my eye thinking about all the lucky Europeans who take the month of August off work.
As for the kinds of jobs or industries that tend to do a lot of hiring right now, Dan said, "My speculation would be any industries in which the ramp-up time leads to a heavy January (health as an example), as you want to ensure your staff are trained by the time New Year's resolutions come. Any company that runs on a specific calendar for financial reporting may want to focus on that."
So how can job seekers take advantage of this moment? Dan advised, "August is the time to PREPARE." He especially emphasized optimizing your LinkedIn profile with keywords related to the role you want to make it easier for recruiters to find you. "LinkedIn is the most powerful resource and tool for any kind of role we'd call office/corporate work, which can be quite lucrative. You can teach LinkedIn how to work for you, how to search for things on your behalf, teach it that you are a job seeker, so that you rank higher in search and receive more invitations to open roles from recruiters."
@dan_from_hr #Jobsearch #linkedin #jobsearchhelp #getpaid #hireme #openroles #gethiredjobsearchtips #jobsearchtiktok #Compensation #howitworks #salary #salarynegotiation #getpaid #edutok #money #salaries #pay #salaryissue #raise #getrich #humanresources #yougotthis linkedin influencer linkedin profile tips linkedin job search linkedin tips linkedin linkedin optimization linkedin networking #danfromhr #danfromhrtiktok
♬ original sound - DanFromHR
@dan_from_hr / Via tiktok.com