Why The September Surge Is The Perfect Time To Job Hunt For Your Next Career Move
Looking for a job is a full-time job in itself. When it comes to job hunting, everyone seems to be looking for a job, in an interview process, or getting ready to get back out there to make some kind of career change. Sometimes there doesn’t always feel like a light at the end of the tunnel but staying consistent can get you the new career you want.
With that being said, there are times of the year when your chances of finding your new career are better than others. One of those times is upon us now and it has been referred to as the September Surge.
What is the September Surge?
Okay so let’s just get to it. September Surge is the time of year when your potential to get a job is greater because companies go on a hiring uptick. The reason this is happening is because September marks the end of summer in most places. Many hiring managers, recruiters, etc. are coming back from summer vacations and are returning to their jobs.
The other thing to know is that most companies operate on a fiscal calendar that begins in September. This means that companies have the budget to fill positions and you will begin to see an increase in the amount of jobs that are posted as well as an increase in hiring activities.
This “surge" typically lasts from after Labor Day until Halloween, so you have a long time to get yourself out there if you are looking to make a career move.
How do you get prepared for September Surge?
I did some of the research for you and went to TikTok to ask an expert. Shaque’l Wilson, also known as the 6-Figure Chick (@shaquel_the6figurechick), has been a constant staple on #careertok where she posts her "jobs of the day," which usually include jobs in the tech space with six-figure salaries and incredibly sought after benefits packages. Through her content, she breaks down what you need to do to break into tech, scale the corporate ladder, and land a six-figure paying job in a way that empowers you to step into the job hunting with confidence and knowledge.
Shaque’l has helped hundreds of people land the career they want and offers services like DIY optimization of your resume and LinkedIn, as well as her accelerator program which gives you access to her and her resourceful team for a more hands-on experience.
Just my luck, Shaque”l happens to be very responsive to her TikTok comments, so I asked her what should someone who is job hunting have prepared for September Surge. She responded in a TikTok post and here are the top things that you should do according to the 6-Figure Chick to make September Surge work for you:
@shaquel_the6figurechick Replying to @Amer-Marie Woods hope this helps love!! #blackwomenintech #newjob #careertransition #jobhelp #septembersurge #layoffs
- Start applying to jobs early. Honestly, the time to start applying is in August. This is when recruiters gather all of the candidates that they will want to send through the application process in early September. Networking as early as possible gives you a better chance of being seen first and staying on a recruiter’s mind. But, no worries if you have not started yet, you should go ahead and get your materials organized now.
- Find companies that you are interested in and look to see if they have posted new job listings. You should also be doing this on the job boards that you trust as often as every other day. This is to stay on top of what new job postings are there because an influx of jobs will be appearing. A quick tip: Shaque’l has a TikTok that covers the job boards that she recommends besides using LinkedIn and Indeed, with verified jobs listed on them.
- Get specific on what job titles you are going to go after. You need to tailor or optimize your resume to that specific job. Additionally, you should also be optimizing your LinkedIn with keywords and updating your information so that when recruiters are doing a search you can be easily found. This part should be done first before you start to press the button on applying for jobs.
One last thing: always make sure you are networking! Your chances of getting a new career are higher when you have a referral from someone in the company.
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Smile, Sis! These Five Improvements Can Upgrade Your Oral Hygiene Instantly
This article is in partnership with Sensodyne.
Our teeth are connected to so many things - our nutrition, our confidence, and our overall mood. We often take for granted how important healthy teeth are, until issues like tooth sensitivity or gum recession come to remind us. Like most things related to our bodies, prevention is the best medicine. Here are five things you can do immediately to improve your oral hygiene, prevent tooth sensitivity, and avoid dental issues down the road.
1) Go Easy On the Rough Brushing: Brushing your teeth is and always will be priority number one in the oral hygiene department. No surprises there! However, there is such a thing as applying too much pressure when brushing…and that can lead to problems over time. Use a toothbrush with soft bristles and brush in smooth, circular motions. It may seem counterintuitive, but a gentle approach to brushing is the most effective way to clean those pearly whites without wearing away enamel and exposing sensitive areas of the teeth.
2) Use A Desensitizing Toothpaste: As everyone knows, mouth pain can be highly uncomfortable; but tooth sensitivity is a whole different beast. Hot weather favorites like ice cream and popsicles have the ability to trigger tooth sensitivity, which might make you want to stay away from icy foods altogether. But as always, prevention is the best medicine here. Switching to a toothpaste like Sensodyne’s Sensitivity & Gum toothpaste specifically designed for sensitive teeth will help build a protective layer over sensitive areas of the tooth. Over time, those sharp sensations that occur with extremely cold foods will subside, and you’ll be back to treating yourself to your icy faves like this one!
3) Floss, Rinse, Brush. (And In That Order!): Have you ever heard the saying, “It’s not what you do, but how you do it”? Well, the same thing applies to taking care of your teeth. Even if you are flossing and brushing religiously, you could be missing out on some of the benefits simply because you aren’t doing so in the right order. Flossing is best to do before brushing because it removes food particles and plaque from places your toothbrush can’t reach. After a proper flossing sesh, it is important to rinse out your mouth with water after. Finally, you can whip out your toothbrush and get to brushing. Though many of us commonly rinse with water after brushing to remove excess toothpaste, it may not be the best thing for our teeth. That’s because fluoride, the active ingredient in toothpaste that protects your enamel, works best when it gets to sit on the teeth and continue working its magic. Rinsing with water after brushing doesn’t let the toothpaste go to work like it really can. Changing up your order may take some getting used to, but over time, you’ll see the difference.
4) Stay Hydrated: Upping your water supply is a no-fail way to level up your health overall, and your teeth are no exception to this rule. Drinking water not only helps maintain a healthy pH balance in your mouth, but it also washes away residue and acids that can cause enamel erosion. It also helps you steer clear of dry mouth, which is a gateway to bad breath. And who needs that?
5) Show Your Gums Some Love: When it comes to improving your smile, you may be laser-focused on getting your teeth whiter, straighter, and overall healthier. Rightfully so, as these are all attributes of a megawatt smile; but you certainly don’t want to leave gum health out of the equation. If you neglect your gums, you’ll start to notice the effects of plaque buildup, which can irritate the gums and cause gingivitis, the earliest stage of gum disease. Seeing blood while brushing and flossing is a tell-tale sign that your gums are suffering. You may also experience gum recession — a condition where the gum tissue surrounding your teeth pulls back, exposing more of your tooth. Brushing at least twice a day with a gum-protecting toothpaste like Sensodyne Sensitivity and Gum, coupled with regular dentist visits, will keep your gums shining as bright as those pearly whites.
Why Do Millennials & Gen-Zers Still Feel Like Teenagers? The Pandemic Might Be The Reason.
There’s nothing quite as humbling as navigating adulthood with no instruction manual. Since the turn of the decade, it seems like everything in our society that could go wrong has, inevitably, gone wrong. From the global pandemic, our crippling student debt problem, the loneliness crisis, layoffs, global warming, recession, and not to mention figuring out what to eat for dinner every night. This constant state of uncertainty has many of us wondering, when are the grown-ups coming to fix all of this?
But the catch is, we are the new grown-ups.
As if it happened without our permission, we became the new adults. We are the members of society who are paying taxes, having children, getting married, and keeping our communities afloat, one iced latte at a time. Still, there’s something about doing all these grown-up duties that feel unnaturally grown-up. Enter the #teenagegirlinher20s.
If there’s one hashtag to give you the state of the next cohort of adults, it’s this one. Of the videos that have garnered over 3.9M views, you’ll find a collection of users who are overwhelmed by life’s pressing existential responsibilities, clung to nostalgia, and reminiscent of the days when their mom and dad took care of their insurance plans.
@charlies444ngel no like i cant explain to her why i had to buy multiple tank air dupes from aritzia #teenagegirlinher20s #fyp
The concept of being a 20-something or 30-something teenager is linked to the sentiment of not feeling “grown up enough” to do grown-up things while feeling underprepared and even nihilistic about whether that preparation even matters.
It’s our generation’s version of when we ask our grandmothers how old they are and they simply reply with, “I still feel 45,” all while being every bit of 76 years old. In this, we share a warped concept of time while clinging to a desire for infantilization.
Granted, the pandemic did a number on our concept of time. Many of us who started the pandemic in our early or mid-20s missed out on three fundamental years of socialization, career development, and personal milestones that traditionally help to mark our growth.
Our time to figure out and plan our next steps through fumbling yet active participation was put on pause indefinitely and then resumed provisionally. This in turn has left many of us hanging in the balance of uncertainty as we try to make sense of the disconnect between our minds and bodies in this missing gap of time.
Because we’re all still figuring out what the ramifications of being locked away and frozen in time by a global pandemic will have on us as a society, there really is no “right” way of making up for lost time. Feeling unprepared for any new chapter of life is a natural rite of passage, pandemic or not. However, it’s important to not stay stuck in the last age or period of life that made sense to us because self-growth is the truest evidence of personal progress.
So whether you’re leaning on your inner child, teenager, or 20-something for guidance as you fill the gap between your real age and pandemic age, know that it’s okay to grieve the person you thought you would be and the milestones you thought you’d hit before you ever knew what a pandemic was. If there’s anything that the pandemic taught us, it’s that we have the power to reimagine a better world and life for ourselves. And if we tap into our inner teenager as a compass, we can piece together our next chapter with a fresh outlook.
Sure, we’ve lost a couple of years, but there are still some really amazing ones ahead.
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