How Job Seekers Can Leverage the Great Resignation

Employee retention and the Great Resignation are on the minds of employers everywhere, and today’s question for the WorkInSports Podcast touches on how candidates can utilize the current situation on the job market to benefit their careers in sports.

Here's Matt Levitan:

As WorkInSports Podcast host Brian Clapp mentions in the episode, his Google searches on the Great Resignation came up with advice for employers leveraging this mass exodus of employees to their benefit. However, hardly any search results appeared geared towards helping job seekers looking for a change. Meanwhile, our first State of Sports Hiring Report revealed all the telltale signs of the Great Resignation affecting people with careers in sports:  58.1% of job seekers surveyed were employed and at least considering searching for a new position. 

Why Employees Leave 

One piece of research that stood out to Brian while preparing to dispense job search advice on the topic: A Limeade study found over 28% of respondents left their company without having another job lined up. Here are a few of the reasons employees in the survey said they were leaving: 

• Burnout (40%) 
• Organizational changes at company (34%) 
• Lack of flexibility/discrimination/not being valued (20%) 

To Brian, those reasons boil down to employees in conflict with their bosses. Employees don’t leave companies; they leave bosses.  

With that in mind, where does the job search advice to capitalize on this unprecedented employee movement come in? 

Video: How Job Seekers Can Leverage the Great Resignation

Getting Started Locally 

Matt’s question spoke to an experience that nearly half (46.6%) of our State of Sports Hiring Report’s survey respondents shared: struggling to find a job in their area. While the sports industry can be tough to move up in without moving around, that creates a hurdle for candidates who have laid down roots where they are living. To clear that obstacle, Brian offers a few pieces of job search advice: 

• Reach out on LinkedIn to local hiring managers. 
• Talk up the local impact the organization has had on the community. 
• Find a creative way to show off your skillset. 

Catch the full episode for Brian’s in-depth explanation of how to take advantage of the Great Resignation in your job search, and be sure to subscribe to the WorkInSports Podcast wherever you get your podcast!