The last 18 months have provided candidates with a lot of incredible opportunities, particularly in Tax. Globally, organisations went through a lengthy period of hiring freezes and having a limited headcount budget due to the pandemic, but – we are now entering an age of the market being candidate short, and incredible talent being snapped up quickly.
Below, we’ve put together a small guide on the key considerations that you should look out for before deciding to make a career move.
Before you look at being active on the market, it’s crucial to understand your career inside out and take the time to reflect on what you’ve achieved. Especially for those who have been off the job market for a number of years – interviewing and being able to present your skills in a cohesive and exciting way will take a little bit of practice. The first step with career development is identifying what you’ve done and how you’d like to progress.
So, sit down and look at your current achievements as well as how you see your trajectory progressing. You can do this on your own, or with a recruiter who should be able to tell you how to articulate each role, achievement, and accolade in the best way possible.
Equally, this is a great opportunity to see what “gaps” you have – where you may want to develop yourself or receive more training. It’s just as important to know your points for development so you can communicate this when looking for a new role.
If you’re looking to specialise in a particular area in Tax, look at adjustments that you could make to your CV to present yourself in the best light. Equally, this process will also show you whether you need to ascertain any qualifications or work in a specific area to progress your career to the “final” stage that you’d like.
Finally, assessing your career to date can extend beyond technical achievement. Many organisations now include personality tests in their recruitment process, for example, Myers-Briggs. You can find many free tools online – which will give you more insight into your behavioural traits as well as the type of environment you can thrive in.
Your wants and needs in a career will undoubtedly have changed since you last moved roles – but pinpointing what that is specifically is important. This creates a “process of elimination” when searching for a new role. You could categorise this into “wants” and “needs” – so you aren’t potentially disregarding opportunities if your criteria then become too strict.
What is important to you can span across professional and personal – whether this is flexible working, training and development, or simply understanding how to progress to leadership level. Having a list of non-negotiables is important, but make sure it isn’t too extensive – or you may be cutting yourself off to a potentially great employer.
It’s important to understand your professional goals in the short, medium, and long term so you can communicate them and also find an employer that will enable you to achieve them.
Your career objectives should also have substance behind them – map out what the career objective is, and write out a roadmap of how you can get there and what the potential obstacles may be. If you do this for three or four key career objectives, you’ll have a much more cohesive understanding of what you need from an employer.
Additionally, understanding the obstacles can also feed into the aforementioned point on training and development and what options an employer must have available for you to upskill yourself and progress.
And finally, it’s crucial to assess what the current market looks like before you commit yourself to interviews and making a career move.
To do this effectively, a commonly used option is partnering with a recruiter who will be able to give you consultative advice on what the market conditions are, what options are available, and how your profile would be hypothetically received by potential employers.
There are certain factors that would affect your moving, and a recruiter has their eyes and ears on the market, thus being able to communicate these effectively with you.
If you’re considering a career move, we’d love to have a conversation with you about the options available, as well as understand what you’d be looking for from an organisation.
