Posted by Brian McCullough
Quite simply, the answer is: absolutely yes!
I write one of these posts almost every year around this time. I don’t know why it is, but people just assume that the holidays aren’t a good time for job searching. I guess it’s human nature: you’re putting things off until the new year, so you assume employers are too. I guess we’ve all worked at jobs where things really slowed down in the month of December, and not much work got done.
But I assure you that the Holidays ARE a good time for job searching. In fact, I often tell clients that December is one of the best months for job search.
So, this year, I’ll give you my top 3 reasons why I think that is:
- Less Competition. I’m telling you. We see it every year. The volume of clients dries up in December, only to more than triple a few weeks later in January. Simply put, January is the most popular month for people to look for a job. So, if you wait for January to start your job search, you’ll by facing twice, even triple the competition. Why not start now when other people are procrastinating.
- If You Wait, You Could Miss Out Entirely. I won’t deny that a lot of hiring gets done in January. New projects, new start, all of that. But that doesn’t mean that the interviewing process starts in January. Think about it, if a company needs a bunch of new people to start January 2nd, they’re probably lining up those people now, aren’t they? That means they’re probably advertising the positions now and interviewing for the positions before Christmas so that they’ll have people ready to go when the holidays end. If you’re assuming that the hiring might not be starting until next month, you could be right. But if you’re assuming the interviewing won’t be starting until then, you could very well be wrong.
- The Hiring May Be Seasonal, But The Foot In The Door Is Forever. If you think about it, there is quite a bit of hiring done FOR the holiday season. All those stores need extra hands. And there are numerous industries that have to ramp up with extra help to handle the holiday surge. But Brian, you say, those jobs are just temporary! That might be true. But even temporary jobs are an opportunity. If you get a temp job and show an employer how good you are, that’s the best “interview” there is for any full time work that might be coming up.
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