It’s a tale as old as time. You graduate, apply for all the jobs, cross your fingers that you’ll get one actually related to the field you just studied. Turns out, job openings fluctuate during the year and, depending on your industry, there are definitely peak hiring seasons that’ll give you the best chance of getting hired.
Indeed.com threw together a few stats from their job listings website to check out peak seasons for hiring. While some jobs remain fairly evergreen throughout the year, others have definite peaks at certain times of the year. They released info on the top 10 occupations with grad roles.
Accountants and auditors, your go time is from January to March, then again from July to September. Civil engineers are looking at a February to March peak opening time. Managers of the general and operational sort get a couple of rounds, the first from February to March and then again later in September.
The start of the year looks good for you tech peeps, with computer programmers seeing the most jobs advertised from February to March, and seeing as it’s the occupation in which you’re most likely to find grad jobs, you’ve got a good shot. In fact, a full 13.6% of roles in this area were for graduate positions.
Computer software engineers from February to April. Although if your field is more along the lines of computer and info systems managers you’ll be waiting a couple more months from July to September.
I’m going to be honest, I’m not entirely sure what architectural and civil drafters do, I’m guessing it involves drawing and blueprint type things? Anyway if you’re a person who does know you’ll find most jobs in February, June, and September. Sales, a job that I can understand, are looking for the most people in January to February.
Over on the health side of things, occupational therapists are looking at a peak hiring season at the end of the year between October and December. Nurses are smack bang in the middle with most jobs being posted from June to July, although they’re an occupation that is never short of demand so there’ll plenty of jobs going year round.
Why do peak hiring seasons even exist? According to Indeed’s economist Callam Pickering, it’s a lot to do with tradition.
“Peak hiring seasons reflect a combination of tradition (‘It’s always been done that way’) and competition (‘If we don’t advertise then our competition will get the best talent’),” he explains.
“Competition for the best available talent can be quite fierce and that is why a lot of these occupations have a peak hiring season early in the year. This often creates a difficult balancing act for students as they try to complete their final year while simultaneously attending job interviews.”
