🎄 A Note to Holiday Job Seekers 🧑‍🎄

How to think about your job search in 2024.

Photo by Steinar Engeland on Unsplash

I’m busy, post-Thanksgiving, preparing for my Career Skills Workshop & Job Search Boot Camp which is coming up in a few weeks. Newsletter subscribers get a special rate, and I’d love for you to join us. If you have any questions about that program, just hit reply and ask.

On to today’s business. This special Sunday edition of the newsletter is exclusively for those of you who are:

• Recently fired, laid off, or out of work

• In the midst of a career transition

• Stuck in a bullshit job, underpaid, working for a toxic boss, or all of the above

For all the rest of you, I’d like to offer just the single humble suggestion:

Your friends and family members might be suffering through a difficult time in their career. If you find yourself celebrating with one of them at a holiday gathering, think about how you’d like to others to handle it if you were in their situation. If somebody volunteers their career news as a topic of conversation, that’s a good sign that they’re open to talking about it. If not, you could consider if other more merry and joyous topics might be suitable, for example literally anything else.

Thanks! Now, let’s get back to the topic at hand: How can people who are looking for their next role optimize their efforts during the holiday season?

I can sum up a winning strategy in three simple words:

Fuck You, Christmas!

Is it just me, or is bad news weirdly attracted to the end-of-year holidays? No matter which holidays you celebrate, it’s already a super-stressful time. Financial pressures get exacerbated, family dramas are escalated, distant relations go un-vaccinated, and for single people… well, it’s complicated.

To spice things up a bit, the geniuses who run many of the world’s largest companies have decided that the period between Halloween and Christmas is an ideal time to… fire people en masse! Back in my day, this was considered bad form, and managers would hustle to get firings done in October. They were simpler times. Today, post-Thanksgiving pink slips are becoming more common than holiday bonuses.

If December finds you in a career place you really don’t want to be, here are some words of advice to carry you through to 2024.

Hang in There

Photo by Paul Zoetemeijer on Unsplash

Yes, my siblings. Do like the mistletoe does. Hang in there.

I don’t need to tell you about the shitty job market, because you all have been telling me about it. It gives a sense of whiplash, coming as it does on the heels of 2022, when we saw a labor market more favorable to talent than ever.

There are some signs things might improve in 2024. But I’ve been spending some time lately worrying about what will happen it gets even worse.

(What that would look like, even? It seems that I’m in the minority of people who expect it’s much. more likely that massive job losses are more likely to caused by feckless maladjusted nepo-baby CEOs than by the powerful yet unpredictable sentient computer software they are all rushing to market. Worrying about AI destroying the planet in 2024 is exactly where these clowns want us, because they’d already destroyed it, and they did it the old-fashioned way — gleefully, with gluttony and greed.)

Anyway! If your job search feels overwhelming at this time of year, you’re not alone. There are wars raging around the planet, which, it’s not mostly been forgotten, was already on fire before the wars started. Millions are coming to grips with the mass-disabling event of Long Covid which, despite being ignored with raging and wanton ambivalence by virtually every relevant institution, somehow continues to exist. The pandemic continues to threaten our health, well-being, and the production of Season 2 of Silo AND The Diplomat. Fuck!

Still — like the 2020 toilet paper ornament dangling from your sister’s Christmas tree — I need you to hang in there.

Here are my best three words of advice to all of you.

1. Grace, as in give yourself some. Not everyone has this flexibility, but if you can manage it, you might choose to tone down your search for these next few weeks. The last month of the year is probably the worst of the year for doing any kind of business. If you can swing it, I think it’s a great choice to spend the time instead practicing your career skills, polishing your pitch, and getting all of your sorted material into A+ shape. If you conserve a little strength in the last of 2023, you’ll be coiled link a spring ready to pounce on 2024.

2. Focus, as in gain some. My friend, you can do anything! To gain a little focus, consider taking a long look at the “experience” section of your profile and picking out the verbs. It should be easy to convince a prospective employer you can do these things, because they can see you have done them. Consider focusing a laser beam only on jobs that fit you perfectly. Re-write your experience section so that every word qualifies you for the job you want to get.

3. Persist. There is really only one way for you to fail in your job search, and that is to quit. If you feel like you can’t keep it up, you’re unlikely to be successful. Stop doing what you’re doing, and start doing what you aren’t. Get religious about your time management. Time-boxing your work on searching, applying, and networking is a favorite tool. And networking can be fun when it’s done thoughtfully.

Job Skills Workshop

My Career Skills Workshop & Job Search Boot Camp, is coming up on Tuesday December 12. I’ve developed this program around the suggestion I made earlier — press pause on reading job postings and grinding out applications, and instead focus on the skills and materials that will support you.

Readers of this newsletter get a 10% discount on registration fee. I don’t want the cost to be a barrier for anyone who needs some help. If you’re a member of any marginalized community, and you’d like to sign up but can’t pay the fee, just hit reply to contact me. We’ll find a way to make it work.

Happy holidays to everyone. I wish you all excellent luck.