How to be Confident Job Searching During the Holidays
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If the pandemic has you job searching during the holidays you are not alone. Whether you’re part of the 3.6 million Americans who have been out of work for more than 6 months, unemployment is a bit newer to you, or you’re underemployed working a “I just need to pay the bills for now” type of situation I’m sorry and this sucks. I am however confident you’ll get back on your feet and into a career that feels more fulfilling than however you’re filling your days currently.
To say this year is different (I refuse to say unprecedented) is an understatement. I recognize it’s easy to get discouraged with a job search that feels like it’s taking forever in an already tenuous job market that’s starting to slow down for the year. You’re probably (right now) realizing that unless you’re already on round 3 of the interview process the likelihood of getting hired in time to take a paid vacation is vanishing by the day.
So you’re left with a couple of options:
Eat your feelings and become one with your couch OR
Keep your head up and continue to fight the good fight.
If you’re over there saying, “First of all Tiffany, I’m going to do both.” I’m not mad at you, at all.
What I will say is that Netflix and chilling with your feelings isn’t the most helpful thing that you can do to get hired sooner rather than later. The most helpful thing you can do is get prepared, and then stay prepared for when that new role comes your way. This is how you get back to a career that feels really good and then level up from there.
But what happens if in between the “getting ready” a well-meaning and concerned family member reaches out to ask “how’s the job search going?” How do you reassure them about job searching during the holidays when you’re trying to lift your own confidence about the situation?
If you were a client of mine we’d dedicate a session to this confidence-boosting and relative-reassuring pep talk but today you’re going to get the sparknotes here:
Recruiters are still recruiting.
Being proactive is the key to your next role and your sanity.
You can only control what you can control.
Recruiters are still recruiting but they are just getting ready for 2021.
You might think recruiters have shut up shop for the year but they are working on finding the best candidates for soon to open roles in January. Recruiters are looking for who’s staying active on LinkedIn and popping into their inboxes reaching out for new connections.
Although 2020 has been a year for high unemployment there are also a lot of highly qualified candidates (like you!) in the job market. That means recruiters are balancing wading through those densely qualified candidate pools and presenting the first, most competitive offer every time. So you better believe they’re looking, watching, and doing their research before all the Q1 job roles go active. This helps make their jobs a little easier and it will make landing your next role a little easier if you stay top of mind for them.
While recruiters may look more dormant right now, they’re just taking pre-holiday vacays, working shorter hours, and attending all the holiday Zoom celebrations. Pretty soon they’ll be back to filling all their days with interviews and you’ll want to make sure you stay top of mind for when this happens.
Being proactive is the key to your next role and your sanity when job searching during the holidays.
Since recruiters aren’t abandoning their jobs in December, it’s important for you to keep showing up. If you haven’t already, it’s time to tighten up your resume. Do things like remove redundancies, make your bullet points actionable, minimize any roles older than 5-7 years, and maybe switch up your resume design with a new Canva template.
After that, it’s time to make sure your LinkedIn profile is more up to date. Make sure to include a shiny new “open to work” badge and step foot into the 100% remote networking game. Trade some of your Instagram and TikTok scrolling for sharing and writing articles on LinkedIn. Start (or continue) building a portfolio of online content that cements you as an expert in your field.
You’re controlling what you can control.
Finally, if I can give any more advice … take a deep, deep breath and remember that you’re not in control of it all. You don’t know when your dream company will post your dream role and for your sanity, you can’t spend 40 hours a week applying for mediocre fit jobs.
You can control being ready with the updated resume/LinkedIn/networking strategy but this is also a great opportunity to take the time to brush up on skills you neglected when you were in the hustle of a full-time job. Is there a Lynda course you want to take? A book to read or blog to scour? Right now you have the skills to be an impactful team member but I want you to take full advantage of filling in holes in your skillset now that you have the time.
It’s also important to take your mind off the job search from time to time. A break can be invigorating and helps you put the search into context.
A job search is intense enough but a job search during the holidays, especially after an extended period of unemployment can seem impossible. I’m here to tell you that it’s not impossible, you’ve STILL got this, and you’re going to come out of this better on the other side.
