The TripleTen Job Market Overview: Launching 2024

Hi, TripleTen community. We hope you’ve started the year off strong. Whether you’ve taken advantage of the beginning of the year to land a new role, learn a new skill, or are hot on the trail for something new, knowing the current job market trends always helps! Let’s look at the job market trends for the start of the year and discuss how the STAR method can give you the confidence to share your professional experiences with potential employers. 

The job market in January 2024

The start of 2024 has been a mixed bag for the overall job market. There’s some good and some bad. Luckily for tech, there is more good.

Let’s start there. The US job market added 353,000 new jobs in January according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. These gains pair well with a 3.8% unemployment rate that marks 2 years of sub-4% unemployment. This is the longest stretch of sub-4% unemployment since the 1960’s.

For the bad, workers seeking unemployment benefits are climbing. Unemployment claims hit an 11-week high spurred by early-year layoffs from 118 companies including Amazon, PayPal, and Snapchat.

Even with the high rate of unemployment seekers and early layoffs, economists seem unconcerned.

Get lucky by making your own luck

Job seekers might feel they got lucky when landing a new role. Whether it was a serendipitous encounter at a networking event or a cold call from a recruiter, new opportunities can strike when you least expect.

Even though these events seem random, luck is often made. To be luckier, you can put yourself in better positions to be discovered, encounter decision-makers, and communicate and demonstrate your fit for new roles.

A tool that TripleTen community members leverage to create their own luck is the STAR method.

What is the STAR method?

The STAR method is a tool that helps structure and communicate your professional stories and achievements in a way that is easier to understand and internalize. This storytelling framework makes clear what situations you’ve been in, the responsibilities and goals you had, and your outcome.

Humans love patterns. Breaking your professional accomplishments into a structure like this helps others understand the impact of what you’ve done and the skills and viewpoints you used to accomplish your goals. 

You can practice this method in many situations: chatting with friends, writing your resume, filling out applications, and throughout any interview process. The key to maximizing the STAR method is practice and repetition.

By repeating your stories you’ll smooth out any inconsistencies or hard-to-follow sections. You’ll also internalize the power that you brought to each professional situation. Remember: You must be confident in your skills before others will be, too. Practice as much as you can. As Benjamin Franklin said, “Diligence is the mother of good luck.”

Next steps for landing your dream job

If you want more in-depth information on the current job market trends and more insights on mastering the STAR method, check out the full video below!

Even when you have a job, your career improvement journey never stops. Stay informed on the current job market as well as on ways to improve as a professional and a networker by subscribing to TripleTen’s job market newsletter.