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Even though it’s the season for family and celebration, it’s important to resist the temptation to pause your job search during the holidays. For recent or proactive soon-to-be graduates pursuing their first professional job, that advice is even more important.
It is true that the last quarter of the year is different from January to September. It is the busiest time of the year for many businesses (e.g., retail), finance departments crunch year-end numbers, and normal workflows are disrupted by holidays, holiday events, and vacations. The completely understandable perception is that companies sideline their recruitment efforts during the holidays, but that perception is wrong.
However, for recent and soon-to-be graduates, now is the perfect time to launch your job search for a multitude of reasons specific to your circumstances. Here’s why:
It takes time to get a good resume ready. Your resume is more than a list of what you’ve done. Your resume should focus on your achievements and experience, but it should also tell the story of who you are. Give yourself the time to consider how you want to market yourself and craft a resume that will help land that first big job.
College career fairs start in January for April-May graduates or summer internships. January is prime time for college career fairs. This is because employers take their time evaluating young candidates for coveted internships and employment. College fairs are an excellent way to make connections with employers you’re interested in, but they aren’t a hire-on-the-spot kind of thing.
Employers recruit in the early spring. As in January (well, it’s still winter, but it’s considered the spring semester). Employers who are interested in hiring recent graduates launch recruitment efforts in the spring – near graduation. This is because recruiting employees is expensive and requires a great deal of time and effort. At the very latest, you should have a solid resume and strategy in place by January.
Preparation is an advantage. The top students and graduates who know exactly what they want to do will have a leg up in the job search game. It follows that, in theory, a top student who knows exactly what they want to do will have the easiest path. However, you can be a top student and still wait until the last minute to initiate a proper job search. If you start preparing now, you will have a leg up on your peers when robust recruitment efforts rev up in the spring.
5Internships. There is no better way to establish professional relationships than a humble internship. If you worked any internships during your college career, you have contacts and experience that others do not. An expanded network of professional contacts made working an internship (or two!) is another great advantage when seeking permanent full-time employment post-graduation.
If you play your hand well, you use the holidays to work on your resume, attend a career fair in January and make some great connections, follow up with the most promising leads and any other contacts you may have at least once before April, and position yourself to submit your resume directly to a recruiter or hiring manager for a job you know you want.
Imagine both scenarios. You’ve zeroed in on what you believe is the perfect job for you. You spend two hours laboring through the many steps of submitting a cover letter and resume online and after you hit “submit”, your candidacy disappears into a digital void and you wait. And wait. And wait. Or you email your cover letter and resume to the recruiter or hiring manager because you kept in touch with their company’s representative after meeting and talking with them on campus.
If one of those paths seems easier than the other that’s because it is, and it’s more effective. Circumventing online job application systems, job boards, etc. is a significant way to increase your chances of getting an interview. This is a point of emphasis. There is a tangible payoff for developing connections early with potential employers and preparing for your job search in advance (e.g., resume, LinkedIn profile).
Also, if you graduated early (i.e., December), don’t pause until the new year. See if you can make some headway while everybody else sits on the sidelines for a month. If you’re heading into your final semester, don’t pause until the new year, be ready for the new year.
Philip Roufail contributed to this article.
Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.
