Being a job-seeker is hard. Period.
But being a job-seeker around Christmas is especially rubbish.
Not only are you searching for work… but you’re also juggling (and having to pay out for) all of those presents and parties. Yikes.
Because of the commotion surrounding Christmas, it can be very tempting to delay your job search until the New Year….
Don’t do it.
You need to fight through your temptations to succumb to the festive season and continue pressing on with your search for work.
And here are five reasons why…
1. Get ahead of the competition
You know why you shouldn’t wait until the new year? Because that’s exactly what everyone else will do.
Scores of people will make semi-empty promises about starting afresh. Things like joining a gym, going on a diet and finding a new job all come under that bracket.
This means that come January, you’ll be competing with a tonne of mega enthusiastic people.
So why waste all of December delaying the inevitable? Though recruitment tends to slow down during December, your competition does also.
Once-crowded recruitment websites will become lightly-browsed during December, so why not take advantage of the lack of competition at the end of the year?
While everyone is watching repeats of The Muppets Christmas Carol, you’ll be scoring your dream job!
2. There are opportunities for temp work
It is no secret that certain types of industries (particularly entertainment and retail) become absolutely swamped with demand around Christmas time.
As a result, many shops, bars and restaurants will offer candidates temporary contracts while they handle the surge in custom.
There’s certainly no harm in acquiring some extra cash before Christmas, and you can always continue your job search simultaneously.
Sometimes employers even keep temporary workers on after Christmas!
3. Take advantage of the joy in the air
Most people tend to be in better moods (except Scrooge) over the Christmas period.
They’re also often likely to have more free time on their hands, and to have less CVs to peruse. So this works out perfectly for you.
We’re all human at the end of the day, and catching recruiters in a good mood (due to the Christmas joy and whatnot) is more likely to make them shortlist you.
Take advantage of the good mood.
4. Exploit budget deadlines
Many businesses have an annual budget that allows them to pay for certain things throughout the year.
This budget will cover hiring new staff, and there’s a pretty good chance that it runs out in January.
Businesses inevitably want to avoid budget cuts in the following year, and thus need to spend all of their allotted money before the year is up.
5. Exploit organised companies
We’re doing a lot of “exploiting” in this list, but it all comes from a place of love.
Any manager worth their salt will have already taken recruitment needs into account for the coming year.
As a result, certain companies will have a “December rush” where they hire and train new staff in anticipation of business picking up again in the New Year.
Despite the distraction of Christmas, the festive period can actually be a really convenient time to hire and train new staff, as business often dies down in December (especially in office-based jobs).
The additional advantage of applying to these companies is that they’re pretty likely to be on-the-ball and well-organised when compared to their competitors who are scrambling amidst the January rush in order to find interviewees.
Summary
So there you have it!
5 things you should do for your job search this December.
There’s so much to take advantage of during this festive season, and the competition pales in comparison when you look at the mad rush of January. Why make life harder for yourself?
Grab your laptop and get searching for work while no one else is!
You can always half-watch It’s a Wonderful Life while you scroll through job listings.
You’ve probably seen it a bunch of times anyway.
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