5 Reasons to Kick Your Search into High Gear in December

Job Search, Networking

Every year, I hear countless job seekers say the same thing: “I’m going to put my job search on hold until after the holidays.”

Unfortunately, this is yet another example of conventional wisdom misfiring. Here are some of the reasons why “suspending” your search in December will do more damage than good:

-I have never seen a December in the search business that wasn’t extremely busy — good economy or bad. Many companies are trying to get positions filled before year’s end because of budgets or potentially losing their headcount. The latter is of particular concern right now, given the state of the economy and new job creation.

During December, there are multiple opportunities to network through holiday parties. The amount of people you can reach out and touch is two to three times that of any other time of the year. Why wouldn’t you take advantage of it?

Think of your job search as a sales and marketing campaign. You should be creating “buzz” about your product — you!  You’ve worked hard building up this buzz, so why stop now? Again, think about all the people gathering and networking (social or otherwise) this month. Don’t you want to remain top of mind?

-People are conditioned to connect (and reconnect) over the holidays. Combine this with a more charitable spirit, and your networking efforts are made much easier. As many push their workloads off until the new year, making introductions, renewing connections and touching base is much easier. Why wait until after January 1st, when everyone will be battling a pile of December’s procrastination on their desk?

-For those companies that aren’t going to hire until January, staying top of mind right now is even more important. Simply put, who has a better chance of landing the job — the person who has been in touch, networking and establishing rapport over December, or the person who makes their first contact via email on January 2nd?

ExecuNet recently cited that executive-level searches are taking upwards of 10 months in this market, and the average job search is two and a half to three weeks per $10K in annualized salary. Networking and relationship-building are crucial to shaving months off this average for yourself.

So, this is no time to rest  Keep building on that momentum you’ve worked to build in 2011 your job search. If one of your resolutions for 2012 is to make a career move, there’s no better time to get a leg up on the competition.

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