Conventional wisdom has it that December is a bad time to look for a job.
But conventional wisdom is wrong
In fact, there are definite advantages to continuing — and even ramping up — a full-time job search during the holidays.
This is no time to take a break! As tempting as it might be to relax, a brief consideration of the following points should convince you to get in gear and step up your efforts.
Companies don’t take a holiday
Have you noticed how companies shut down operations during the last four weeks of the year? Or how the stock market closes between Halloween and New Year? Of course they don’t!
Business doesn’t stop. Hiring managers keep reading CVs that land on their inboxes and companies must keep planning for recruitment and development for the coming year.
Don’t break your momentum
Smart job seekers treat a job search as their full-time job. In time, you develop skills and learn techniques to get in the flow of things. It’s against your best interests to let the momentum dissipate. Losing this momentum in any season is detrimental to your success.
Continue to build your momentum in the following ways:
- Reconnect with everyone and expand your network. Christmas and family get-togethers are a perfect opportunity to renew old acquaintances and make new ones. Research new networking events in your area related to your job role and target sector and sign up for their Christmas drinks. Every professional networking association has one and they tend to be low cost.
- Devote “holiday time” to defining and refining your job targets.Use the downtime to do more online research and expand your job targets. Which other sectors or types of organisations are interesting to you? Make a list of organisations whose products and services or cause you connect with and do a simple search on LinkedIn by company to check out first and second connections. Keep in mind the importance of pursuing a three to five job options to accelerate your research.
And if the holidays pass and you worry that you missed your chance, remember this for the year ahead: There is no such thing as a bad season for a job search.
If you’d like to learn more about how to conduct a really efficient job search so that you can land a great new role in 2020, look up our Get Hired! Programme.