Pros & Cons of starting a new career in peak season

In this article, you will learn what is the best time of the year to plan for your new career change as a Personal Trainer, Nutritionist or Pilates teacher. There are periods of the year where it’s more competitive because these periods are specific hiring seasons and, also, because people make career changes during these periods.

Career change normally happens at the beginning of the year, when people make new years’ resolutions. Career changers want to start fresh with a new year, in fact here Future Fit Training, for example, January is the busiest month of the year. This month is followed suit by September. The reason is that after the summer everyone wants to start fresh again and when it comes to starting a new career, we see an increase in our courses’ enrolment.

This trend is clearly visible in Google Trends too. As you can see in the graph below, there are pick trends each January of the year. When people search “career change”, the term is at his peak in January and then it dies during the year with December at its lowest.

New students are probably enrolling to new courses, regardless of the industry, in January just after the Christmas holidays and then starting to get qualified for a new job after a few months when they have completed their courses.

This is very important information to have in mind when changing career, if you are going to make a move, you need to understand the seasonality attached to the topic.

Pros of changing career in the peak period

Starting a new qualification and applying for jobs are two of the most important activities for changing career and each one of them has its own peak periods. We said January is the busiest month for both. Here are some advantages of January:

Most companies receive budgets updates and can recruit new staff.
Most customers hiring personal trainers and nutritionists wait for January to start new courses, everyone wants to try a new routine to lose weight and gain muscles.
The same applies to nutritionists, everyone in January wants to lost weights, start a new diet and get into a routine

While this is not a strict rule, the months after Christmas triggers a brand new start for everyone. There is no right or wrong time, but keep in mind that January is always the peak period.

This trend doesn’t apply strictly to Pilates teachers, simply because Pilates teachers have a different type of clients, for example, pre and post pregnancy mums, elderly clients and post-trauma clients. These types of activities can happen all year around, not just in January.

Cons of changing career in the peak period

Here are some disadvantages of January:

Companies are too busy hiring people that it’s probably best to wait February when things cool down a bit.
Personal trainers and nutritionists also register the highest time of the year, which means you will compete with many people getting new qualifications and applying for jobs. It’s wise to apply earlier, maybe in October and November.
Remember that even if people start a new routine to lose weight and be healthy in January, most of them cannot keep with the pace and give up after a few weeks. That’s why February and March are normally dead.

Conclusion

It’s vital to know that career change in sport, nutrition and Pilates has its own seasonality attached to it. And this applies to both starting a new qualification and applying for jobs. By knowing this information, you can best plan your career move, for example by avoiding busy periods and more smartly into job applications when nobody else does it.

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