Candidates can ride the current jobs boom to success, provided you know what you want and why you want it, according to Emma Charnock, Regional Director of Hays Accountancy & Finance in Hong Kong, who here explores the trend.

The current job market is booming, with unemployment low and demand for candidates high. In such a market candidates should be able to advance their career and gain a meaningful and satisfying position related to their skills and experience.

Yet far too often we still hear candidates say they are unhappy in their current role. When asked about the reasons, they admit to accepting an offer because the salary was higher than another vacancy or because they wanted to move from a previous position quickly and didn’t take the time to research the range of opportunities available. Others say they are finding their search unproductive or frustrating, but then admit they have been haphazardly applying for vacancies because they really don’t know what they are looking for. These candidates often say: ‘I’m looking for anything’.

With all this indecisiveness, it’s no wonder good people end up in the wrong organisations or positions! If you are being told you are overqualified or don’t have enough experience for the roles you are applying for, you are probably applying for the wrong jobs.

The best way to ride a jobs boom is to ensure that you take advantage of the number of jobs available to develop your career in the direction you ultimately wish to pursue. The current market presents job seekers with an ideal opportunity to determine exactly what they want to achieve in their career, and then pursue an opportunity that will allow them to ultimately achieve it. This requires clarity on the part of the job seeker to know exactly what they want, and a clear plan of action to search for the role that will advance their career in the desired direction.

You should determine where you want to be in five and ten years time, and seek out the roles that will enable you to work towards this goal. Given the current positive labour market, there has never been a better time to map your career and take advantage of the high level of vacancy activity to get to where you ultimately want to be.

Source: Hays Hong Kong