Waiting for the Ball to Drop

The time between Christmas and New Year’s often lends itself to skeleton crews keeping businesses running while many employees enjoy vacation time. This frequently leads to a lull in activities such as hiring. If you are job seeker that is trying to make contacts and follow-up on leads, this can get quite frustrating. To help alleviate this frustration and keep the “happy” in your holidays, here are ten productive ways to spend the time between Christmas and waiting for that New Year’s Eve ball to drop so that business gets back to normal.

  1. Define YOUR Brand / Decide if you need to Re-brand
    – Make sure that you have determined what type of position you are seeking
    – Ask a couple of friends, family members, and professional acquaintances to describe how they see you “professionally”
    – If the two don’t mesh up, work on re-defining your professional brand!
  2. Create / Update your LinkedIn profile
    – The profile should reinforce the Brand you created in step 1
    – Join groups, participate in professional discussions, forge connections, and apply for positions
  3. Build a Top 10 List of employers you would like to work for
    – How will you ever find what you are looking for if you don’t know what that is?
    – Read  The War for Human Capital for  additional tips
  4. Set SMART Goals
  5. Update your Work in Texas profile
  6. Brush up on your computer skills
  7. Volunteer
    – Help yourself make connections while helping a worthy cause
  8. Relax / Refresh / Recharge / Reward yourself
  9. Plan to attend some job search skills seminars
  10. Catch up on BlogForce issues you might have missed 

Hopefully these tips can help turn a pessimistic attitude of “waiting for the other shoe to drop” into an optimistic attitude of what all can be accomplished while “waiting for the ball to drop.”

Happy New Year!

Bobi Cook is a Regional Facilitator for Workforce Solutions in the Houston – Galveston area. She currently conducts job skills seminars throughout the 13 county Gulf Coast region utilizing her MBA and over ten cumulative years experience as a professional educator, quality systems manager within the automotive industry, and small business administrator to help job seekers develop and implement successful job search campaigns.

Author: Blogforce

Workforce Solutions provides comprehensive human resource services for businesses and residents of the 13-county Houston-Galveston Gulf Coast region. Workforce Solutions helps employers solve workforce-related business problems and area residents build careers, so that both can better compete in the changing worldwide economy. Our Employer Service Division provides personalized service to help employers find qualified applicants for their jobs, build the skills and expertise of their new and current employees, and address human resource needs. We operate multiple community-based career offices in 13 Texas Gulf Coast counties to help residents get a job, keep a job or get a better job – offering placement, career counseling and financial aid services. We partner with the region’s businesses, educational institutions, civic organizations and community leaders to find solutions to current and future labor needs of industries that are vital to the region and its economy.

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