December 2024: Maximise the festive period for your 2025 tech job search / tech hiring strategy
Senitor Associates
Choosing between Speed & Quality? IT Recruitment so you don't have to. We add value by uniting talent with opportunity.
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It's only 6 days until Christmas, meaning lots of hiring teams are starting to turn the "out of office" on and many tech professionals are doing the same. This is our 25th Christmas since we launched Senitor Associates back in 1999 (right before the Y2K Milennium bug panic - remember that anyone?), and one trend we see EVERY YEAR is a spike in candidate activity - particularly in that week between Christmas and NYE!
So we thought we'd use our last Newsletter of 2024 to share tips for any candidates hitting the job search in this time, and also clients who want to attract the best tech talent for their 2025 talent pool!
CANDIDATE TIPS TO BOOST YOUR FESTIVE JOB SEARCH
#1 Update your CV
Step one of your job hunt - get your CV up to date! Things to include are:
Key details - Name, postcode and contact details
Opening statement - Short, focused opening statement, who are you, what have you done in your career and what are you looking to do in your next tech role.
Tech Skills - All relevant skills you have / are in the process of learning with level / years of experience.
Employment history - Most recent role first and work backwards from there. Try to highlight one or more key achievement in each role.
Additional - If you do anything outside of work that would help your application (e.g. attend tech MeetUps, mentor junior programmers etc) ensure you highlight this at the end!
#2 Benchmark your salary
Reach out to a recruiter or check out resources like UK IT Jobs Watch to see what your skillset is worth in the market. You can also browse our latest salary guide via the link below for a number of roles across the UK and Ireland:
🔗 IRELAND TECH TALENT INSIGHTS
#3 Start a targeted job search
It can be overwhelming starting your search, so use filters around skills / job titles / salary / location / work set-up to help narrow the search. Check out the careers page content, Glassdoor reviews and social feeds of prospective employers to help get a feel for the culture and employee engagement levels - this can help you focus your search for the right opportunities!
You can browse our live jobs here!
#4 Set up job alerts
Let the job boards do the hard work for you and get notified when a suitable role pops up for you to apply to! Depending on your role of choice you may want to activate multiple alerts (e.g. Software Engineer AND PHP Developer AND Software Developer etc.).
#5 Check your messages
A lot of recruiters are still working over this period, so stay alert for potential calls / emails to discuss opportunities!
CLIENT TIPS TO BOOST YOUR CANDIDATE ATTRACTION FOR 2025
We know that the majority of hiring teams are winding down for a Christmas break, BUT given the anticipated spike in candidate activity over the next two weeks here are a few suggestions to make the most of this period to boost your talent pool for 2025...
ADVERTISE VACANCIES NOW
Let the adverts work in the background to gather candidate applications while your out of office is on - just be sure to add a note on when candidates can expect an application update if you are off work. Top tips for advertising are:
Use standardised job titles - simple and searchable is key
Add the salary - jobs without a salary drastically reduce application rates (and can be a red flag for candidates)
Highlight key information - job location, if it's on-site / hybrid / remote, working patterns, benefits packages etc.
Only add essential skills - Desirable skills can sometime put candidates off applying, so if it's not a dealbreaker don't put it in the advert
Post it to the best sites - or use a recruiter who will do this as part of their service > We'll link our website here just in case!
SET UP WATCHDOGS OR SPEAK TO A RECRUITER
If you have access to job boards / CV Databases / LinkedIn Recruiter Licences then make sure you are setting up saved searches / CV watchdogs and projects to capture candidate details.
This is something that our recruiters do religiously in their workflow - so if you'd rather a stress free option then you can leave that to us!
Check your employer brand footprint
Remember candidates are doing more than searching job adverts, they're scoping out potential employer's Glassdoor reviews, careers page content and social media feed. If your content doesn't reflect your culture, environment and EVP authentically, it could cost you a great candidate!
Check out more top tips for clients in our latest blog here.
Thanks for reading! We'll be back in 2025 with our next Senitor Scoop Newsletter - we hope you all enjoy the festive period and have a great New Year!
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