Guidebook

Section 8: Q&As for the Young Professional (YP) and the Coach

YP: Questions to Ask Your Coach

• What resources did you use to find your first job or to grow your career?
• How can I find information about how much education is required for different careers and how much they will pay?
• How effective are Employment Services or head hunters in helping you start or grow your career? What is a head hunter?
• What did you do when you were looking for your first job that worked best? What did you do that you would not recommend someone else do?

Coach: Questions to Ask Your YP

• Who do you know that previously graduated in your field or is working in your career field? How could you get to know more people?
• Have you researched your career online at the Occupational Outlook Handbook? What did you learn?  How will this help you narrow your job search?
• Would you like to have an informational interview to help you narrow down the organizations you would most like to work for? Use your connections or reach out to your YP program to introduce them to someone in their field. (Discuss questions they could ask to help them achieve this goal.)
• Which online sites do you think are most useful to help you know who is hiring and which companies you would like to work for?

Visit this site to learn more about getting started in a job search.

Visit this site to learn about the 5 tips for job search success.

Visit this site to learn more about getting a job, grad school, or other opportunities from BYU’s Career Services.

View this site to learn more about job postings.

View this page to learn more about the 5 things to know when entering the job market as a college grad.

To effectively plan your job search, it is important to understand how different industries recruit new employees. Tuning into industries’ and employer’s annual recruitment cycles can be instrumental in your job search. Understanding the recruitment peaks doesn’t mean waiting out the rest of the year. It is important that you are actively seeking employment opportunities, not finding excuses to avoid looking.

For those job candidates graduating from college with undergraduate or graduate degrees that are seeking full-time employment, pay particular attention to the on-campus recruiting calendar of major employers on your campus. This will give you an opportunity to interview with employers without leaving campus.

Summer Jobs/Internships:

For summer positions, some employers with post available opportunities as early as mid-fall quarter of the previous year. Early January is also an active time for employers looking to hire for the summer. Early application submissions are driven by the type of position, location of the position, number of applicants and the number of positions available.

Typical Recruiting Timelines by Industry:

• Investment Banking, Finance, Consulting: September – December
• Engineering, Technology: September – January
• Education, Nonprofit, Government: December – May
• Advertising, Marketing, Media, PR: March – August

Quarter-By-Quarter Summary of the General Calendar of Most Employers:

First Quarter: A New Year’s Wave of Hiring

Major hiring decisions are made when people are in the office. These follow closely on the heels of the holidays and summer. Big hiring months are January, February, September and October. Strong hiring periods, such as the first quarter, when demand for talent may outweigh the supply of qualified candidates, may be an excellent time for job candidates that are interested in upgrading their job responsibility and pay.

Second Quarter:

Second quarter is an excellent time for hiring for jobs that are dependent upon fair weather outside. The tourism and hospitality industries often hire in the second quarter in preparation for increased summer business. Major industries classified as information, financial services and professional and business services hire heavily in this quarter

Third Quarter: Vacation Time

Hiring tends to slow down in July before picking up in late August. As this is typically a slow time for recruiting, a recruiter may have more time to review a job candidate’s qualifications.

Fourth Quarter: Busy then Slow

The fourth quarter has an increase in hiring for holiday retail employees than a lull during the Thanksgiving to New Year’s period. During the fourth quarter, the supply of active job seekers typically is lower resulting in a higher chance of getting hired by a recruiter that is focused on filling positions before year end.

Visit this site to learn more Free Job Posting Sites

Visit this site to learn more Find a Better Job Workbook