When does hiring season typically start?

September 18, 2016 8:06 PM

When do creative agencies (graphic design) typically start hiring new recruits? Is it better to start applying at end of the year or at beginning of the new year?
posted by omar.a to Work & Money (3 answers total)

Overall, in general, hiring is more likely to pick up at the beginning of the year than the end (because of budgets and the difficulty of getting stuff done in December/vacation season), but the best time to start applying is as soon as you're interested in getting a job and jobs you're interested in are posted - there's no advantage in waiting.
posted by brainmouse at 8:12 PM on September 18, 2016 [5 favorites]

I hired something like 8,000 creatives during my years as a hirer-for-hire, and looking back, I really don't think there was much of a pattern, seasonally. Big agencies with annual and expiring budgets and reviews, typically don't have their financial year figured out until mid-February, when the dust has settled from the previous year, and sometimes there's more or less than expected for new hires. Smaller firms can be really impacted by gaining or losing big clients, which is very unpredictable. The only real monthly pattern I can think of is that yes, December in North America isn't much of a new-hire month.

Seems to me hiring booms usually happened whenever there was a sudden jump in workload, which can happen pretty much anytime.

But don't wait or try to game the system. It's too fluid. Start applying as soon as you're able to apply, and don't stop until you're delighted with your new job.
posted by rokusan at 8:37 PM on September 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

I'm a creative. There is no hiring season in design. Hiring happens when a need arises which can happen any time of the year (altho as rokusan says above, December is usually a dead month), and more and more these days it will start with freelance or freelance-to-hire.
posted by violetk at 2:32 AM on September 19, 2016 [3 favorites]