Job Hunting After Easter and Labour Day: What You Need To Know

With the Easter-day and Labour-day holidays upon us, it’s time for job-seekers to break out of the summer slump days and hit the ground running for new opportunities.

Despite the slowdown in the economy in the region due to the trade war between US and China, companies are exercising their expansion plans to hire talents in financial services, banking, retail and marketing – almost all lucrative industries filled with high-earning potential.

Each sector is poised for growth despite the expansion of the digital ecosystem which will see an implementation of new technologies.

As one of the leading people-focused recruitment agencies in Asia, The Edge Partnership has been aggressive in hiring for thinkers, leaders and professionals in private banking and financial institutions as well as hiring for front-end developers and PR professionals. We are constantly evolving the way we hire and work closely with business heads to maximise opportunities for senior candidates.

If you are wondering when to put in your application, here’s how you should time your search and look out for the job that fits you.

Work The Recruitment Cycles

This is the time of the year where the greatest number of hiring decision-makers are in the office together. The first half of the year is always prime-time for recruiting and hiring.

While executive hiring can happen at any time of the year, senior job searches tend to be focused where hiring will be most active from January through mid-June which remains the biggest. Post-bonus pay-outs after March have seen an increase in job opportunities where hiring managers are on the hunt to replace people.

Tap Into LinkedIn for Intel

To enquire further about the hiring cycle, you could reach out to recruiters to find out when is the best time to look out for the right job or browse the ‘Jobs’ page to pick up on a particular hiring pattern.

If there’s a company you’re interested in, stay up to date on their page for news announcements that might indicate they’re hiring right away – it could be news in the form of new products, expansion or an inflow of capital funding.

It’s A Skill-Driven Economy

We are in an era of a skill-driven economy. This indicates that demand for skills are higher than ever before and niche skills are what makes new candidates employable.

With the unemployment rate in Malaysia stagnant at 3.3%, Singapore at a low 2.1%, Hong Kong at a record low of 2.8% and India a high 6.1%, some economies may suffer a slow pace of hiring while some are increasingly picky in finding job candidates who have the right skills, thus restraining them from expanding their workforce.

How do you know if you can make the cut? There’s always an exception to the rule and it is important to recognise the industries and their skillsets that they’re looking for – whether it is having solid knowledge in multi-asset classes including Equity, FX, Fixed Income, Funds and Structured Products or holding experience in current technology and innovation trends, the better candidate who proves his or her mettle, ultimately wins.

Roadmap Your Career

Taking a leaf from Harvard Business Review strategy to roadmap your career, review your past experiences, notes and all the findings that you have gathered and categorise them according to life-cycle experiences (when you had a turnaround situation), managing experiences (when you lead a large team and have launched new products) to geographic experiences (experiences that happened outside your home geography).

Select four to seven functional experiences and three to four management experiences that will benefit you most and list them on your career roadmap. This should be focused and realistic — a reference sheet that you’ll use regularly to plan your growth and assess your progress.

The goal is to find a job that will support you and target key areas whose values are in alignment with yours. Get specific with your needs, and you’ll get a better idea of which jobs and companies to pursue.

Exceptions To The Rules

Keep in mind that recruiters and hiring consultants are often affected by a range of reasons, which changes from market conditions to having to fill roles unexpectedly, therefore opportunities can open up at any time.

Want to increase your chances of showing up on the jobs radar? Get in touch with us at The Edge to find out how you can land opportunities in the industry that you’re in.