How long does it take to find a job?
The answer is that it depends. Job aspirants understandably would love to know how long it will take to find a position and resolve any ambiguity about their future employment.
For a job seeker, the path to getting an offer can seem endless. First you wait to have your resume acknowledged, then you wait to get called for an interview, and finally you wait to find out if you are selected or not.
A job search can be an unnerving time, especially if you’re between positions. With so much pressure to get back to work as soon as possible, you might be wondering about the fastest ways to find a new opportunity.
Like every other business process, hiring goes through cycles. A lot of hiring occurs after annual budgets are approved.
Look at financial statements of each target company on your target list and determine when the fiscal year begins.
When you get noticed and invited for an interview, the next step you can take is have an idea of what your ideal position should receive annually for compensation. For instance, a typical software engineer starts from 87K to 153K annually.
While you could take an aggressive approach and apply to every journal and internet advertisement, this might not be the most efficient method of finding a position.
Here’s a look at how long it usually takes for a job seeker to find an opportunity:
How Long Does It Take to Find a Job
The Application Process
Let’s take Beacon Resources, for example.
As a trusted staffing company in Orange County, Beacon needs to make sure candidates are a good match for open positions, which is why you have to go through the application process.
After submitting your information, you’ll be contacted by a member of the recruiting staff to further evaluate your skills and other qualifications.
Once an opportunity matching your attributes opens up, your information will be forwarded to the employer’s hiring manager. With companies submitting new openings every day, this process can move quickly.
Variables Affecting the Timeline
While there’s no way to give a guaranteed estimate on how long it will take you to find a new job opportunity, there are a few factors that might make you a more attractive candidate:
- Availability to start
- The overall state of the economy and the job market
- Geographic location
- Your flexibility
- Desired level of privacy for your search
The bottom line is that in many cases, if not most cases, you should have at least one job opportunity within a week. Variables like your goals, course, type of job, locality make the process longer or shorter compared to other candidates.
If you’re concerned that your job search is taking longer than expected, don’t hesitate to speak with your recruiting specialist to get tips or advice.
Move Your Search Forward
If the speed and accuracy of a targeted career search sound good to you, why not work with one of the top accounting recruiters in the industry? This service is complementary to job seekers, so you really have nothing to lose.
That’s the answer to the question ‘How long does it take to find a job?’ Now, let’s talk about increasing your chances of getting hired.
How to Get Hired When You Find a Job
Despite the obvious improvements in the economy, it’s still quite difficult to land a decent job. The recent research states that 8% of young college grads are currently unemployed.
What is more, effective April 2017, the U.S. underemployment rate was 14%.
Of course, it’s no fun at all to serve burgers part-time in an attempt to repay the student loans from your bachelor’s degree.
It’s time to get a job you really want – but how can you get it?
If you’ve been asking yourself ‘How long does it take to find a job?’ and have been searching for a job for quite a long time and ordinary job search methods have failed you, you may need to try new tactics.
Consider some of the following unusual ways to get the attention of HR managers that have actually worked.
1. Place an Advertisement on Google.
One of the successful examples of determined job seekers is a man named Alec Brownstein who got hired by CBS News thanks to his uncommon job search strategy.
Once he was searching the top executives of the company he wanted to work for on Google, and he noticed that the results didn’t include any paid ads. When he realized that executives may Google themselves once in a while, he decided to open an AdWords account and buy the top spot for a few names.
Some time after that one of the directors of that company googled himself and saw this advertisement. After that, he called Alec and invited him for a job interview, which eventually got him the job.
Brownstein’s advertisement cost him only 15 cents. This story proves that sometimes a creative approach can be super effective for landing a new job.
2. Buy an Advertisement on a Billboard.
If you feel like you’ve done everything you could and nothing works for you, try placing an ad on a billboard. We’re not kidding.
A recent college graduate, Adam Pacitti, had applied to hundreds of various companies in an attempt to get a decent job.
Getting no interviews or even phone calls, he decided to launch a campaign called “Employ Adam”. He rented the billboard with his picture and such words, “I spent my last $500 on this billboard. Please give me a job. EmployAdam.com”
Being determined and trying his best to get the attention of prospective recruiters, Adam soon became famous all over the world. News about his creative job-hunting tactic quickly spread on the TV, radio, and mass media in many countries.
Many people also used the hashtag “#EmployAdam” on Twitter to help him get noticed.
As a result, this brave young man got over 60 job offers, and eventually found his dream job.
Since that time his creative and unusual projects have been shown on CNN, BBC, CBS, and more. Nowadays, he works as a viral producer for various projects at Seachange.
3. Put Your Application in a Beer Bottle.
Another creative young man named Kelly Taylor has always dreamed of becoming a brewmaster in a bar. He created his application document and applied for an assistant brewer position.
You would think his resume was an ordinary one, but actually, it wasn’t.
He decided to bring a bottle of a home brew to the job interview and place his resume on the bottle as a label.
It was his plan to apply first for the next best position of an assistant. His plan worked, and he not only got this position but was also promoted to brewmaster within six months.
Brennan Gleason from Canada took the beer-bottle application to the next level. He was about to graduate from the university when he got an assignment to create a self-promotion project.
Having several bottles of fresh beer and a degree in graphic design, he came up with an idea to place a bit of his resume on each beer bottle. Then he sent all of them to several design companies he was interested in.
Eventually, he landed a position as the creative director at a digital marketing company.
Of course, not all the crazy job search tactics will get you the job. It can be hard to know just how far can you take these methods.
There are dozens of other creative strategies and ways how people grabbed the employer’s attention. In other words, the key to success is to do something that differentiates you from others.
Still wondering ‘How long does it take to find a job?’ or ‘How can I stand out from the other candidates?’ Use the tactics shared above and land your first job as soon as possible.
About The Author
This is a guest post by Ann Mosley, a representative of TopResumesWriters. Thinking outside the box and finding creative solutions are the main features of her approach. Ann’s goal is to help job seekers find jobs that bring both wealth and satisfaction.