The ICT Job Hunter Blog

In yesterday’s post, I talked a bit about the advantages of using your Christmas vacation to start planning your job search or career change campaign.  There is though, no need to wait until then.

Although many people assume that there is no chance of being hired in the run-up to Christmas for anything other than a temporary job which will only last until the beginning of the New Year, this is, in fact, a fallacy.  For one thing, those companies or organizations which still have money left in their budgets which they need to use up may be very keen to hire rather than risk losing the remaining cash.  Those businesses that are planning to start the New Year with new initiatives or projects may also want to have everything in place in advance, and this too might include making sure that they have any new staff in place.

Another reason why it’s worth maintaining your job search efforts throughout December is simply because most other people don’t and so levels of competition may be lower.  More so than at any other time of the year, it seems that entire workforces are on the big wind-down from fairly early on in the month, with more of their focus being on Christmas shopping and festive celebrations than on the job.  As we have said though, many employers like to get ahead of themselves and ensure that everything and everybody is in place for the start of the coming year and so there are still opportunities out there.  By continuing with your job search efforts, therefore, you may be able to pick up on chances that those who have effectively switched off will miss. 

Remember too that because everyone tends to be in a much more relaxed frame of mind, the Christmas period can be a great time to step up your networking efforts.