What Employers Are Really Looking For In 2025
Hiring trends are evolving at an unprecedented pace, being shaped by rapid technological innovation, a fluid economic landscape, and changing employer expectations. If you’re searching for a new opportunity to fast-track your career, navigating the job market is a greater challenge than it has been for many years.
While opportunities are expanding in industries like clean energy, healthcare, and AI-driven tech, other sectors are slowing or becoming more competitive. To be successful in your quest for a new role, it pays to stay informed and adaptable.
In this five-minute read, we discuss the major hiring trends that are shaping recruitment this year. Crucially, we share with you what hiring companies are looking for and provide tips that will help you be the standout candidate in a competitive jobs market.
The Rise of Skills-Based Hiring
Employers are becoming more focused on what you can do rather than what degree you hold. They’re asking for candidates who can demonstrate the skills required to do the job. This doesn’t mean to say that degrees are defunct, but rather that greater emphasis is being placed on vocational learning, specialized certifications, and hands-on experience.
Specific skillsets that are in high-demand include:
- Knowledge of and experience in AI tools, and the ability to analyze data
- Adaptability, a willingness to learn, and a creative thinking/problem solving mindset
- Soft skills such as emotional intelligence, communication, and collaboration
- Cybersecurity awareness (you don’t need to be a cybersecurity expert, but you should understand basic security practices)
What this means for your job search:
- Don’t rely on job titles on your resume. Highlight skills that are most relevant to the job for which you are applying.
- Ensure that you demonstrate how you have helped to drive outcomes and results in your career to date.
- Pursue learning opportunities that are directly related to your job search, and gain specialist certifications in them.
Growing and Shifting Industries
If you feel stuck in your current role, knowing where growth is highest and fastest will ensure that you search in sectors that offer the greatest potential for professional growth.
In particular, we are seeing positive hiring trends in sectors that include the following:
- Green jobs – demand for talent is booming in fields such as renewable energy, sustainability, and environmental tech, across finance, engineering, operations, and compliance.
- Healthcare jobs – especially in nursing, healthcare admin, and allied health, demand for personnel is being driven by an aging population and long-term care needs
- AI & tech-driven roles – advances in technology are reshaping the workplace, and creating demand for professionals with strong digital capabilities in a variety of roles, including sales, HR, marketing, and operations.
It’s not all good news, though. Sluggish sectors – those that are facing hiring freezes or constrained budgets – include government and education.
What this means for your job search:
Focus on jobs and sectors that offer longer-term potential. If this means changing industries, demonstrate your transferable skills such as project management, communication, or data analysis, as well as your adaptability and desire as a continual learner. You don’t need to be working within your target industry to have a competitive edge.
The AI Factor: How It’s Changing the Hiring Process
AI is now embedded in the hiring process from start to finish. That means your resume, your interviews, and even your online presence might be evaluated by algorithms before a hiring manager sees them.
What this means for your job search:
AI systems are used to filter candidate lists. If you haven’t crafted your application for both AI and human eyes, you risk being placed at the bottom of the slush pile. We recommend that you adapt your approach by:
- Optimizing your resume, job application, and LinkedIn profile to be read by people and machines – use clean formatting and keywords from job descriptions.
- Tailor each application using the language used by the employer.
- Practice for automated and recorded interviews, and use the STAR method to keep your answers on point and targeted to demonstrate your experience and fit for the role.
How To Be the Standout Candidate
Change is always challenging, and never more so than when you are searching for a new job. This year’s hiring trends are creating a seismic shift in the job market, how companies are hiring, and who they are hiring. Our four best tips to make sure that you are and remain a highly-valued candidate and employee are:
- Never Stop Developing Skills
With such rapid advances in technology continually redefining job descriptions and role requirements, skills development should be high on your list of priorities. There are many low-cost or free courses available on platforms that include Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, and more that offer specialized certifications in high demand skills. - Build Your Personal Brand
Make sure your LinkedIn profile reflects your strengths, and that you’re engaging with industry groups and sharing your accomplishments and ideas. - Highlight Your Flexibility
Though more organizations are seeking employees to return to the office, hybrid and remote working are still on the agenda. Companies have diverse and geographically remote teams. Candidates who demonstrate their flexibility and capability to work independently and collaborate virtually are highly sought after. - Partner With a Recruiter
At Lakeshore Talent, we help you to stay ahead of the game. We have a deep knowledge of the industries in which we specialize, and integrated relationships with our clients – many of whom we help to develop their hiring strategies and processes.We help you identify the right roles to achieve your career goals, refine your resume, prepare you for interviews, keep you informed about your progress through the hiring process, and even negotiate your compensation package. Most importantly, we get you in front of companies who are actively hiring (even for positions that are not yet advertised).Don’t let uncertainty and change stop you from taking your career to the next level. Submit your resume to Lakeshore Talent today and we’ll get your career moving with an opportunity that is ideal for you.