End of year, should you end your job search?


End of year ≠ end of job search

Btw, ≠ is mathematical for “does not equal”. But you all knew that, right?
Don’t give up on looking for a job just because it’s End of Year/Holiday Season. I touched on this in a previous thread – it’s always some sort of holiday, Thanksgiving, July 4th , your parents’ 40th anniversary,  and you can’t afford to stop looking.  You have to keep the antennae waving around if only because there will be other job seekers out there who decide that this is the ideal time for them to be sneakily sending out resumes while you’re putting your feet up, figuratively speaking, being domesticated, reading, looking at Project Runway re-runs.

And never mind the holidays, there are all those other reasons you don’t have time to take the job hunt as conscientiously as you perhaps should. I’m not even going to touch on Hurricane Sandy, it was too tragic to be mentioning it in this context, but there are other personal things that happen in your life. You have a tooth extraction, your child is sick, the roof on the garage collapsed. I mean, life keeps getting in the way (John Lennon: “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans”. Sidetrack – those of us old enough to remember him, hope you took a moment on December 8, anniversary of his death, to remember his words and music, and sorrow at the loss).

P-l-e-a-s-e don’t stop looking on the Internet for jobs, keeping in touch with your recruitment counselor at your favorite agency, networking your heart out, trying for contact interviews. (Maybe “contact interviews” is something for a separate blog article?) Looking for a job shouldn’t be a 40-hours-a-week activity, too depressing, but keep on plugging consistently and you increase your chances of success. As your Mommy used to tell you, the harder you work, the luckier you get. Mommies know what they’re talking about.

We have more jobs at Merit right now than we’ve had in recent months, so you can’t afford to be taking the time off and possibly missing out. Some of them are temporary assignments, some of them are temp-to-perm and some of them are straight permanent hires. But they’re jobs, even though Christmas is nearly upon us.