September Slump, or September Surge?!?!?!

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^{Today’s edition is brought to you by Kickresume, a jobsearch platform featuring industry-specific resumes, AI-driven resume/cover letter builders, and Pyjama Boards - their remote job board!}

📈September Slump, or September Surge?!?!?!📉

People seem to have some HIGH hopes pinned on September…and with good reason!

☀️ Summer vacations are a winding down, and people are back in office which means teams can focus more on hiring, and processes will likely move more quickly.

🦃 Hiring teams also know they have a short window before coming up against back to back holidays in November and December (historically, some of the slowest periods for hiring.)

🥶 And finally, people are often hesitant to make moves towards the end of the year because bonuses pay out in January.

All of this means that September is an IDEAL time for both companies AND jobseekers to get moving on hiring. That said, a look at the BLS reports shows that the highest numbers of hires happen in June…so some of this may just feel like an uptick simply because July and August are so slow.

I suspect that companies are still going to be cautious. But the slow down in inflation, and some promising forecasts of some growth in Q3/Q4 could mean that companies will invest in headcount.

But one thing’s for sure - I don’t think any company is going to make the mistake they made in 2021/2022. After major layoffs in 2020, many companies hired way too aggressively which has led to layoffs throughout late 2022 and 2023 - many of these companies are still significantly bigger than they were pre-pandemic. And I suspect any company is going to be far more cautious and careful about adding headcount, and ensuring that they’re using available resources before growing their teams aggressively again.

So my guess: we can be cautiously optimistic about a bit more hiring happening in the next few months but nothing crazy.

🤓Starting a New Job?!🤓

Last week, I shared how several readers are starting new jobs!! 🎉

So I wanted to share some onboarding resources!

Here’s a video I made a few weeks ago with top tips for the first 90 days on the job. You have a really unique opportunity in the first 90 days to show yourself to be a “high potential” employee and that “halo” will carry you through tougher times at work - so don’t waste the first 90 days!

And whether you want to create your own onboarding plan because your employer didn’t provide one, or you want to supplement, or you need some inspo as you onboard a new team member, these resources may be helpful.

👀 A few extra helpful posts from this week 👀

1. The instagram is growing! Check it out and don’t be shy about DMing me - it’s way quieter over there than LinkedIn/TikTok.

2. Here’s how you can learn about jobs on LinkedIn WITHOUT looking on the job board (try this on other platforms too!)

3. Here’s one on platforms to check out beyond LinkedIn.

4. And here’s a post with lots of great remote job boards that are worth checking out if you’re targeting remote roles.

5. And I love this post a former colleague made about using ChatGPT to align your profile/resume to a job description - she walks through exactly how to set up the prompt!

🧾What I’m Reading 🧾

Y’all know I am addicted to newsletters - sadly I can’t remember the last time I read a book (hopefully that will change when I’m on vacation with no internet in a few weeks!).

But in the mean time, here’s a few newsletters that I’m consistently opening and reading!

Talent Edge curates lots of workplace insights and info on the world of HR (think Harvard Business Review, McKinsey Reports, etc.) Great read for anyone interested in HR topics, workplace culture, etc.

AI Tools Report is one of the MANY AI-newsletters out there. Personally, I know there’s a lot of buzz around AI at Zapier, and I’m sure your companies are the same so I’m trying to stay up-to-date with bite size info on the products and evolutions in this space through newsletters like this one.

Kickresume is a full-service platform for jobseekers.

From beautiful, customizable industry-specific resume templates to their AI-powered career coach or interview question generator, they offer countless resources for the jobseeker that have helped people like you land interviews at major tech companies like Amazon and Google!

Their job board, Pyjama Jobs also matches you with jobs that are a good fit for your background, and let employers contact you directly.

There are countless platforms for jobseekers out there and they’re all great for different reasons. Kickresume may be the best option for you if you want a lot of customization (they offer 30+ formats, with lots of options for colors, graphics, etc!), if you’re looking for a lot of different AI-powered resources, and if you’re interested in checking out their job board.

Get started with Kickresume for free!

🙋Answering Your Questions🙋

Each week, I’ll answer a few of your questions in this section. You can submit

I would definitely encourage you to apply to mid-level roles! You have a degree in accounting plus several years of accounting roles. You should definitely look at Account II roles in my opinion! That said, given the tough market, we’re seeing people with a few years of experience get hired even into entry level roles so it may make sense to apply for those as “safety” jobs.

I would suggest putting your education at the bottom of your resume, and you can even leave off the graduation year. Otherwise, employers may assume you’re new to accounting simply because you’re a recent grad.

Congrats on wrapping up school - you seem really well positioned to build a great career with the match between great work experience and your new degree!! Good luck!

🛫 Community Connections 🛬

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The In-Flight Amenities 🍱

Each week, I share job openings within my network and jobseekers that I hope we can all support in their job search.

Jobs you need to check out:
Zapier is hiring as always!
I continue to share recently posted jobs with networking contacts on X!
Technical Director/Strategy Lead opportunity here.
3D Artist opportunity with a remote gaming company!
Several Account Executive opportunities in ed tech…great for former educators!
Leadership role in Analytics at BECU!
East Coast-based folks, looks like there are a few opportunities with Quantive, and you have several people you can network with here!
Cool Admin Asst opportunity with Warner Bros!
Product Manager role with PMI!
Several remote roles at Chemonics.
And as always, I share jobs regularly in my Talent Collective! (If you’d like to share jobs, we’d love to have you!)

A jobseeker you need to hire:
After testing this out last week, I’ve decided to shift from featuring one person to sharing a few recently “open to work” folks.

Want to be featured? Simply share a post with the #opentowork (feel free to tag me!) and I’ll add a few to this section each week!

Please take a minute to click on these and throw some support to these amazing job seekers!! They’ve all done some cool things to bring attention to their posts too so check these out for inspo. 🙂 

LaVonne Pepe is eager to land her next role in L&D, and I adore this post where she shouts out people who are supporting her, and shares how she’s growing in her work!
Haley O’Neill is looking for her next role, and she’s also a great one to follow because she regularly shares recently posted/refreshed jobs!!
Nathan Chung is looking for roles in security engineering - love how he shared his resume in the post!
Gabriela Carreno Serrada is looking for opportunities in RevOps/Sales Enablement and does a great job outlining her qualifications at a glance in this post.
Kealie McClain is looking for UI/UX Designer roles, and love this overview of what she’s looking for that she put together!
Joshua Lacks joins the crew of recruiters impacted by tech layoffs…he makes a really compelling case for what he will bring to his next team!
Ashley Blom is an old friend who was just laid off and is looking for her next CSM opportunity - lots of fun nuggets and lots of personality in this post!!

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