It’s hiring season. Are you ready?

It’s back to school time and the height of the hiring season is about to begin. September marks the time when companies start recruiting new talent to maintain and improve their competitive edge. This trend is especially true for innovators and organizations undergoing big pivots and transitions. Laying off or growing, the beginning of September is when organizations refresh their talent pool and hire their star entry level talent. For talent, this means working to promote your brand both online and offline, signing-up for a class, cleaning up and updating online profiles, optimizing online visibility, and networking where you want to grow and go.

For career transition:

Pack your schedule over the next few months with strategic career building actions. Go to key events, and invite people in your field to lunch or coffee; participate in online discussions and share useful content. If you are an expert or at a senior level in your field, you have valuable knowledge and experience to share. Look for opportunities to speak or workshops to lead. Take your five-year and ten-year career plan, and list two to three actions you can take to advance your career development and sharpen your leadership skills.

Managing your learning:

Learning and growing never goes out of style. This fall start laying the seeds to build a powerful network. It’s also time to focus on your personal development by taking a meditation class, practicing mindfulness or engaging a coach. The better you become at interpersonal relationship, the more successful your networking efforts. As a general rule, connectors thrive at work and in their careers. This ability requires high levels of emotional intelligence. These actions also demonstrate the key skills including leadership, curiosity and emotional intelligence in demand. The hard to find combination of skills hiring managers look for in talent today.

CEO’s and HR need to invest in their talent:

For companies that need the best for the 4th revolution, consider getting your high potentials to evolve their hard skills so your company remains competitive. Now is also the time to enroll your employees in brick and mortar or online courses, or even bring in your own training companies.

How are you taking responsibility to move both your company and career FORWARD?

Caroline Stokes is founder of Forward + The Emotionally Intelligent Recruiter.

Executive Headhunter, Executive Coach, Emotional Intelligence trainer for recruiters, Forbes contributor and Podcast host of The Emotionally Intelligent Recruiter - to move innovation leaders forward in the new technology revolution.

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