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White PaperSearcHive View 005
The October Hiring Window.
January is when finance leaders start looking. October is when the best candidates start listening.
Senior finance people move to a rhythm set by year-ends, audits, budget rounds, bonus dates and long notice periods. Hire against that rhythm and every search takes longer and costs more. Hire with it and the market does half the work.
The Financial Controller you'll need for next year's audit, the FP&A Director who should be running the 2027 budget, and the CFO successor the board keeps asking about are all deciding their own new year right now, in the same budget rounds, looking at their own bonus forecast.
This report walks through the twelve-month finance hiring calendar, why notice periods make October the real deadline for a January start, and what to put in motion before the year closes.
What's inside
- The twelve-month finance hiring calendar, month by month, as your candidate sees it.
- Why notice periods mean a January start is really an October decision.
- How to handle the bonus question and structure a buyout before you make an offer.
- Why offers that sit over Christmas rarely survive it, and how to avoid the December problem.