Experts: Full speed ahead for job search during holidays
Written on November 28, 2009
As friends, neighbors and family set aside a portion of the next four weeks for shopping, decorating and the other trappings of the holidays this time of year, Ryan Casey will continue to devote himself to a singular cause:
Finding a job.
"It’s status quo," said Casey, a recently married technology specialist and marketer from Creve Coeur who has been searching for work since his layoff a year ago. "I’m going to keep networking and looking on job boards and online to see what’s out there."
Career professionals say pushing the job search forward during the run-up to Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa is a wise strategy.
"Your worst-case scenario is to stop looking," said Mark Dischert, a recruiter with Accounting Career Consultants in Creve Coeur.
Once upon a time — in the early-1960s-era of "Mad Men," holiday office parties and the monthlong exhale known as December — putting a job search on hold until the new year was pretty much standard operating procedure.
That custom, hiring experts say, is as outdated as Don Draper’s office behavior.
"With the advent of instant communication, it’s much easier to keep the process moving," said John Maglione, a senior information technology recruiter with SyllogisTeks in Chesterfield.
Although business doesn’t come to a standstill in December, the experts say there is a discernible slowdown.
Managers once consumed with meetings are likely to devote more time to incoming communication, including r
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