Job Searching During the Holidays

Being out of work during the holidays is really stressful.  We all have more expenses this time of year, it's just part of it.  Comes with the territory, even if you're cutting back.  And who hasn't had to the last few years?

A great way to add stress to this busy time of year is to keep frantically sending out your resume to every opening you think you might be remotely qualified for.  If your job search technique is to find and apply for as many jobs as you can online, you're going about it the wrong way.  Think about it.  How many responses, even a polite email declining your application, have you actually received?  Probably not many.  And this time of year isn't a great time to get an interview.  Most companies are wrapping up the end of the year.  Quite a few shut down and take a few days off.  The lucky ones take a week.  So where does that leave you?

It puts you in a great spot to take some time to back away from the job search.  Stop spending all day on Monster or Indeed.  Stop sending your resume out as many times as humanly possible every day.  Stop focusing on speed reading as many job descriptions as you can.  Just stop.  Seriously.  Go get a cup of hot cocoa and some Christmas cookies.  Focus on that for a minute.  If you don't celebrate Christmas, run out to Trader Joe's and pick up some of their Christmas cookies.  They go great with the hot cocoa. Trust me.  You can thank me later.

So you've got your hot cocoa and cookies and have stopped obsessively sending out your resume.  Now is the perfect time to start learning how to conduct your job search and manage your career in a way that will actually get you results.  Take some time and start reading about how looking for a job works, now.  Things have changed.  Pretty drastically, too.  It used to be that you could just submit your resume to jobs on Monster and actually expect something to happen.  You may as well be throwing your resume out your car window.  You'll get about the same rate of response, anymore.  

So settle into a comfortable spot by the fire and start reading.  There are a lot of resources out there with really great advice.  As you read you'll start to see the same things being said, over and over.  Follow that advice!  If you read 3 articles telling you the same the thing, listen!  Some great resources are blogs written by career coaches and recruiters.  Dan Armishaw has some great advice on his blog.  It's well worth checking out.  Recruiter.com has a great article listing several career advice blogs that are worth reading.  You can even go to our website at Career Dragon for articles to help you figure out the best method for your job search.

So, if you're not getting the response you want it's probably time to change your tactics.  Now is a great time of year to take a break and learn a different approach.  Learning something new is always a good thing.  So is giving yourself a little break.  Especially when hot cocoa and cookies are involved.