5 Tips for a Successful Job Search this Holiday Season

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5 Tips for a Successful Job Search this Holiday Season »

Bethesda, MD (PRWEB) December 07, 2011 This year, don’t wrap up this year’s job search, along with that new pair of slippers, in anticipation of the approaching holiday season. According to Laura M. Labovich, Founder and President of Aspire! Empower! Career Strategy Group in Bethesda, MD, “contrary to popular belief, shelving a job search in advance of the approaching holiday season is simply not a good New Year’s resolution.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this past November the unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage point to 8.6 percent, with employment trending up in retail trade, leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, and health care industries. Labovich says, “even slight upswings in economic patterns can create a window of opportunity with which to make sweeping change. Job hunters would be wise to maximize on these trends by partnering a job search with a strategy this year.”

Here are five tips to help job seekers gain momentum during the holiday season (and all year round):

1. Go; don’t slow. Many job seekers give up searching between Thanksgiving and New Years in fear of slow, or no, hiring, a lack of return phone calls, and a general disinterest in recruitment in general. But, the holiday season is a great time to reach out to personal and professional contacts, to wish good tidings and share conversation about work, jobs, life in general.

2. Party with a professional purpose. There are more parties in December than any other time of year, which means more opportunities to network. It is acceptable to discuss job search related topics but, remember: friends, family members, and business acquaintances are more inclined to help if it is mutually beneficial. So, before heading out, give some thought to a few ways to help others, thus making the conversation reciprocal. Keep it light, but try to retain the details of the conversation, which will make following-up (when all the eggnog has been enjoyed) that much easier.

3. Send a handwritten note. Sending a “Happy Holidays” or a “Happy New Year” greeting card to recruiters, prospective employers, and to contacts at target companies, is a great way to stay top of mind and continue the conversation into the new year.

4. Volunteer. Not only will volunteering infuse the “spirit” of the season into a mundane, perhaps frustrating, search; it can look mighty good on a resume too. Be strategic; whenever possible, job seekers should research companies and/or organizations that would be a “right-fit” were a position to open up in the future. While there, network, get to know the key players and become an insider. All while giving back.

5. Join the ranks of the social media doers. Still unsure how to use Linkedin in the job hunt? Been playing around with Twitter without any success? The holidays offer a great time to learn, so take a class, get additional training, and join the masses. Using it successfully? Then, ratchet it up. Link to a new article on Linkedin, tweet a tearful, yet uplifting, job search story; others will enjoy this new, or improved, presence on these sites.

Lastly, be patient, relax (yes, even in a full-blown job search, there should be time to relax) and, most importantly, push on.

‘Tis the season to get a job, after all.

5 Tips for a Successful Job Search this Holiday Season