Job Searching - Yuletide Edition

You might have noticed a certain lack of blog posts the past few days (err... four days). I'm sure that I don't have to tell you, dear readers, that December is a crazy mess of a month. Between the holiday madness that has already started (early this year... I'm blessed) and the fact that December is, in fact, the busiest time for my new company I'm already experiencing a certain whirlwind effect on my life. I know I am not the only one and it got me thinking this morning... how do the holidays affect the job search?

Job searching, as we all know, is a second full time job at the best of times (when you're already employed but looking that is) but when you take into consideration the frenetic pace of the holidays coupled with all of the holiday parties ("So, what do you do?") and family time ("How's the job search going?") as well as the general notion that companies are not hiring in December, it would come as no surprise to me if many job searches foundered during the holiday months.

I've written about the Job Search routine before (check out: How to Survive Unemployment and Job Search To Dos) so you all know I think it's very important to keep yourself "on task" so to speak, but this is even more important during the holidays. I am not actively looking for a job right now and I can't seem to find time to do anything lately (no blogging, my RSS feed is a mess, etc.) so it seems prudent to ease up on yourself a bit but let's say you make sure you do one thing every day to continue the search and keep yourself on track.

Here are some Holiday Job Search tips from the Pros:

1. Since most job seekers take the holidays off, you'll have a natural leg up (from 8 Reasons to Job Search During the Holidays by A Great Resume Service)
2. Take time to fine tune your resume or portfolio (from Rev Up Your Job Search During the Holidays by Career Builder)
3. Use the holidays as an Ice Breaker (from Holiday Hope by Job-Hunt.org)
4. Get a jump on January - you can't start working in the New Year if you didn't interview before then (from Holiday Job Hunting Can Reap Rewards by Career Cast)
5. This year isn't typical - job searches are different in general now (from Three reasons to keep your job search going during the holidays by Laurie Bartolo)

What are your tips for searching during the holidays?