Keep it Mobile While you’re sipping lemonade and catching up on your beach reading, employers are still looking for qualified IT talent, and your competitors are still pounding the pavement. Putting your search on the back burner for June, July, and August could cause you to miss out on your dream opportunity.
How can you stay motivated when barbecues and swimming pools are calling? Here are a few tips to help you stay focused:
Plan Ahead and Keep a Schedule
As you plan your summer activities, be sure to include weekly job-search activities. Set goals for yourself and stick to them. Perhaps your goal is to apply to two targeted IT positions a week, or attend three tech-related networking events a month. Whatever your goals may be, write them down and be sure to prioritize them. Check in with yourself each week to ensure you’re staying on track.
Turn Summer Activities into Networking Opportunities
Many people enjoy getting involved with charity events during the summer. They may volunteer for local tree-planting and beautification efforts, charity sporting events, or other activities. Even classical networking events become more common and take on a lighter, more social vibe during summer. There is a distinctly different feel to an after-work networking event that takes place indoors in February, and one that takes place on a rooftop in June. Summer is a time to get out and socialize. Make the most of every opportunity by connecting with new people. Just be sure to modify your elevator pitch to reflect the situation.
Your job search doesn’t have to occur only while you’re tethered to your laptop or desktop computer. You can research positions from your smartphone or tablet, while you’re out and about. Spending time by the pool? Grab your table and put in 20 minutes of job-search work before you reach for a frozen daiquiri. Waiting for the grill to heat up? Take a few minutes and check for new jobs or updates on your phone. You don’t have to devote hours each day to your search in order to make it a productive summer.
Don’t Become Discouraged
Companies have to juggle summer vacation schedules, and projects can often take longer to complete. If you aren’t getting immediate callbacks or feedback, don’t let it get you down. Hiring managers need summer vacations too, and they also have to pick up the slack while their team members enjoy their own summer breaks. Use the slow time to conduct extra research on your target organizations and brush up on your interviewing skills.
Partner with a Recruiter
Internet job boards have helped to streamline job searches, but there are a host of unadvertised positions that job seekers only have access to through professional recruiters. Many companies prefer to work with recruiters to help improve the chances they will attract only the most highly-qualified candidates. IT recruiters focus their efforts on facilitating the perfect match between the companies they work with and top IT talent. Partnering with a recruiter not only opens the door to these opportunities, but it helps give you a competitive edge. Your recruiter will do all of the early leg work for you, including pre-selling the hiring manager on your qualifications.
If you are an IT professional looking for new opportunities and you’re ready to partner with a recruiter, contact The Prevalent Group today. Our team can help you locate and apply for ideal IT positions in northern Illinois that match your experience and your career goals; and we can help keep you motivated as warm weather approaches.