New Year, New Job?

What’s your New Year’s Resolution for 2024? For around half of people in a recent survey, the New Year means a new job. Or at least, thinking about finding one.

If the New Year feels like the ideal time for you to make a long-desired change to your working situation, this is the article for you:

Is the New Year the best time to find a new job?

The plethora of people making “New Year, New job” resolutions makes January a busy time to look for a new job. But it’s also potentially a very good one.

Of course, some people like to plan to start their new job in IT (or whatever industry they happen to be in) after the Christmas break is over. This normally means commencing their job hunt in mid-Autumn.

But if you haven’t got that far yet, don’t worry. It’s not too late! Many employers in the IT industry and other sectors experience the same mental reset during the festive holidays too.

On top of this, there are a few business-related reasons why if you’re looking for a new job, January might be the ideal month to start.

Is January a good month to start a new job?

If you haven’t successfully applied for a new position ready for a January start, there are several reasons why this is still a great time to begin being proactive:

1) Hiring and staffing budgets are released now

January and February are normally the months that hiring managers or individual IT teams are given their hiring budgets for the year.

Before they get these, most are understandably coy or unwilling to commit to hiring new people for the following year. Once they have the figures though, they’re ready to go.

This makes the early months of the year the time that many teams get the IT recruitment ball rolling. You’ll be right there ready for them.

2) People want their bonuses before they leave

There is one big incentive for employees to stay in-post for the whole calendar year. Namely, their bonus.

Being proactive and looking for a new role in time for it to start in January is often seen as a great move…

But if your current employer knows you have one foot out the door before they set your bonus for the year, they might not be inspired to set it at too high a level.

For this reason, many people ensure they stay in their current job at least until the New Year. Then, bonus safely secured, they start looking for pastures new.

3) Companies want to hit the New Year running

Most hiring managers and teams know how the system works. This means they plan for all of the above to happen.

Anticipating a need to boost recruitment in the New Year following a sort of “budgetary blind” in December, January and February are typically times that firms start seeking future talent in earnest.

New Year, New job?

With New Year’s Day hangovers and slow Betwixtmas relaxation firmly in the rear-view mirror, now is the time to take the first steps in your job hunt.

Especially if you want this year to be the one when you finally get the kind of job that satisfies and challenges you, rewarding you for the hard work you do in 2024.

Ready to start your job search? You don’t have to do it alone.

Ernest Gordon is a specialist engineering and IT recruitment company. Our experts walk you through our proven, open, honest, and transparent approach to recruitment.

Let’s talk about it today. Reach out to us for a cost and commitment-free chat.