#51 Why Q1 roles start in September

Right now, a lot of senior people who want a new role by Q1 are planning to start looking in January.

January is the worst time to start.

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This is what actually happens at the end of the year: hiring slows for about four weeks. New-year budgets aren't released, decision-makers are out, and processes that were moving in November stall until mid-January. Then everyone who told themselves "I'll start fresh in the new year" floods in at once. You end up running the hardest version of a senior search — cold start, most crowded window of the year.

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And senior searches don't move fast. Clarity on what you actually want, the first real conversations, interview loops that run weeks rather than days, an offer, and a notice period stacked on the end of it — even when every stage goes well, that's most of the autumn and winter gone.

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If it feels longer than it should, there's a reason. For years, your next role probably appeared through a reorg, a restructure, or someone tapping you for it. You never had to run a long external search, so you don't have a feel for how long one takes.

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Last autumn I started working with nine people who wanted to be in new roles by Q1. Some fell off, some stalled, one chose to pause. But of the ones who actually did the work, four landed — and they did nothing alike. One got clear on the impact she actually delivered and rebuilt her positioning around it. Two got clear on where they wanted to go and invented roles for themselves at startups. One landed a role he'd been circling for years after grinding on his interviewing until it was sharp.

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They didn't land in Q1 because they moved fast. They landed in Q1 because they started in September — and September to January is roughly the length of the thing.

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That's the advantage. Not speed. Not hustle. Timing.

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And the work that gets you there mostly isn't applying. It's getting clear on what you actually want and how to say it to a hiring manager who's never set foot in your company. That takes longer than people expect — which is exactly why it's a September job, not a January one.

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One thing to try this week: picture the role you'd say yes to landing in your inbox tomorrow. Are you ready to go after it now — or would you need six weeks of getting your story straight first? If it's the second one, that's not a problem with you. It's work that's far easier to do now, on your own clock, than in a scramble when the thing you want is already sitting there.

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P.S. Starting now doesn't guarantee a Q1 landing. Starting in January nearly guarantees it won't be one.