It’s become received wisdom that looking for work in December is pretty much a pointless exercise. Businesses are conducting their end-of-year reviews, meeting and entertaining clients, focusing on hitting the annual targets that remain and generally not being around enough to get on with the recruitment of new staff.
It doesn’t necessarily follow that you shut down your job search in this period, but it probably does mean that you might want to change what you do. Here are 5 Job Search activities, tailored to the Christmas season.
1. Review your objectives
The urgency of the job search often precludes clear thinking on final outcomes and this time of year is a great time to review your objectives to make sure that the effort and energy you are putting into the job search is in order to achieve a goal that you actually want. Use the seasonal slow down to give yourself the mind space to explore the bigger questions that you’ve been relegating to the back of your mind during the rest of the year. Is this what you really want? What if I landed this job tomorrow? Would I be happy? December is the time to think the unthinkable, explore radical ideas and, if necessary, completely redraw the objectives for the next year.
2. Review your strategy
If you’re taking your job search into the Christmas period, there is a good chance that you might have been on the job market for longer time that you’d like. December is as good a time as any to think about the activities that have provided you with greatest return of investment so far and which ones you need to take out of your routine for the following year. Break down the time you’ve spent on each of the activities, plan to redistribute your resources to those activities that have given you most reward so far.
3. Clean up your digital footprint
December is a great time for doing the things that you have been prevaricating over for the past year. You know you should have been working on optimising your LinkedIn profile, or replacing that photo you’ve made permanent for no other reason than a lack of a better replacement. Take advantage of the December slow down by getting your job search assets in order for a major push in the New Year
4. Schmooze
December is great time to network. You’re going to do this anyway but extend it to include those that you’ve neglected throughout the past year. This doesn’t mean buying everyone you’ve ever met a drink but it could mean a phone call and wish for a Merry Christmas to an old colleague you haven’t touched base with for a long while. Connect and refresh your network with your personal touch. The goodwill generated will pay dividend in ways which are not obvious and cannot be predicted.
5. Learn something new
December is a great time to learn something new about the job search – a new tool, or new ways of using tools which you’re already familiar with, or techniques that you’ve struggled to master in the past. You’ve heard everyone talk about how great LinkedIn is for the job search? Well, use the time you’ve got to figure out the how’s and why’s during the season slow down. Struggled in the past with telephone interviews? Find some resources online and use the time to practice. Use the time to train yourself to be a better job seeker in 2011 than you were in 2010.
Merry Christmas
I’ll leave you with a final note. Do take a break. Your energy and morale are vital assets for any activity, especially one where we know in advance that the challenges are tough. Make sure you drop everything, for at least a couple of days, and enjoy being with friends and family.
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