My annual holiday column comes a bit late, so I'll just post the ghosts of blogposts past on my recommendations for candidates and recruiters over the holiday.
This is a short week. If you hate your job, you're probably loving that you get two and a half days of work, followed by another half day on Friday. If you're freaked out by the economy, you're probably wishing you had more time, and wondering what January will be like.
I'm with you. I've been there. In December 2004, my last year working for someone else, I faced an action plan at a new company. The work I did from Thanksgiving to New Years jumpstarted my best earningyear ever. I made a placement a week from the first week in January to the third week in August, and ended the year with over 70 hires and my first six figure year.
In December 2000, I was in Los Angeles in the midst of the dot-com bust. The work I did from Thanksgiving to Christmas gave me a string of hires from January to September that built my book as other recruiters and account managers were laid off. It was my best year to date, until the September attacks cut short our recovery.
In contrast, in December 2001, I used my time unemployed to visit friends, hang out at bars, spend time with family, and stay up till three of four o'clock reading. I had a small severance and California unemployment, and so I waited until the second week in January to get started on my job search. It took me seven weeks to get hired as an account manager (which was still pretty good), but money was so tight by that point, I was living at home with my parents, driving a car with a cracked windshield, and 30 pounds overweight.
It's not too late to start.
Get your resume ready. Plan out your call list. Go to the library and build a list of companies you'd work for and with. Start calling immediately. The work you do (or don't do) right now will make the difference in the New Year. Think of it this way. If you were in a race, and got to start 10 minutes before everyone else, wouldn't you take that shot if the prize was a job? Well, it is a race, and the prize is a job. Ready, Set, Go!
