Santa Isn't Bringing You A New Job For Christmas

Deep Freeze Your Permanent Job Search During The Holidays For Efficiency

Should you job seek during the holidays? Most experts say, "Yes". Everybody else, says "Heck No."

What do Indeed, Forbes, and Top Resume — along with the rest of the “influencers” of Employment Industrial Complex  — have in common? 

They all trumpet that you should plug away at your permanent job search during the holidays! 

I call bullsh*t…and most ordinary job seekers agree with me. 

Besides the fact that I read 4 to 5 of my competitor’s articles — and they all seemed to be written from the same writer or recruiter AI content mill — the wisdom of the crowd usurps the sage knowledge of the experts in this case. 

"Steel Man" your opponents arguments to show good faith.

STEEL MAN ARGUMENT — Why You Should Continue Looking for Permanent Work During The Holidays! For those normal souls not into erudite debate nomenclature, a steel man argument is when you engage in discourse against the strongest version of your opponent’s argument. It’s a honest, respectful, and bridgebuilding way of arguing or debating that you never see on The View or Fox & Friends. 

4 Reasons Why The “Experts” Believe You Should Continue to Job Search During the Holidays

1. Less Competition

   Since most jobseekers believe that companies freeze permanent job hiring during the holidays, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy that less people (especially the currently employed) look for new permanent positions. In turn, your resume is more likely to be reviewed by an actual person since there are less applicants to wade through. 
   

2. Work Your Way into the Company

   Sometimes, a temporary position can turn into a permanent position — when timing and luck are on your side — and if you have proven to be a valuable asset. (Hey, there’s an open, permanently-funded position available in the company you are temping for. Apply NOW!) 

   
   

   Better yet, lady luck is riding shotgun with you. (Your new temp boss loves your dirty draws AND there is an open position in their department. Play the lotto that day, then apply.)
   

3. Companies Are Still Hiring During the Holidays

   Recruiting is often a year round endeavor for most mid-size and larger companies. Some hiring managers may be pressured to fill vacant roles previously earmarked for funding or risk their labor budget getting nixed or downsized in the coming fiscal year. Ergo, they need a body in that workstation to keep the allocated dollars flowing. 
   

4. Get A Head Start on Prime Hiring Season

   January and February launch the “prime hiring season” as new budgets for talent are doled out and companies focus on hitting their sales forecasts. Submit your resume in November and December to be at the top of the pile while everybody is in winter hibernation — and later reap the benefits — when hiring managers see your resume at the top of the pile!
   

This all sounds quite logical…only to people who have never recruited or worked in talent acquisition.

You need a Reality Check if you think job hunting during the holidays is productive.

5 Reality Checks on Why You Are Better Off Downscaling — Or Omitting Your Holiday Permanent Job Search. 

1. Skeletal Staffing

   Often, the decision maker is out of the office and nothing can happen without their authorization. “Hey Einstein, you may have invented the atomic bomb, but Jean from Accounting is having a hot girl Caribbean Christmas this year, and she needs to approve the budget for all new hires. Can we circle back to you after Three Kings Day?” 
   

2. Understaffed Recruiting Departments

   When companies downward spiral, recruiting is often among the first lay-off casualties. This situation is magnified during the holidays, when available staff is depleted even more due to holiday scheduling. That leads to an ironic position of a recruiters not having enough staff to fill voids in their own department or others. 

Think nobody reviews your lying, copy-and-paste, pseudo-optimized resume now? Imagine your December 19th application. Your grandma’s lame ass fruitcake will age better than that dusty December application come January.

3. Corporate Perception of Smaller Pools of Qualified Candidates This is a case of, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” Companies report smaller applicant pools during the holidays due to many jobseekers spending time with families on their holiday vacations or because jobseekers believe there are no permanent jobs available due to hiring freezes. Thus, many companies hold off on posting new jobs, until they feel they can attract a larger pool of qualified applicants to choose from, come the new year. 

4. Too Busy With End-of-Year BS Finalizing budgets for the new year, wrapping up old business projects, and preparing for the organization’s new year goals are often prioritized over hiring new talent. As such, companies feel it’s not preferable to onboard new employees amongst holiday vacations, limited staff, and end-of-year deadlines. 

5. The Holiday Backlog The Holidays have not only expanded from the traditional 5–6 weeks between Thanksgiving and New Years Day, but have extended to the cusp of Halloween. With people often taking 5–7 days for Thanksgiving travel and the lucky ones who can take 2 full weeks for Christmas and New Years, all of these workers will come back to a mountain of overdue email and an overbearing Slack to-do list; likely putting new business — like hiring you — on the backburner. 

Quick Takes on Stupid Reasons to Job Search During the Holidays While researching the competition to see why they justify encouraging applicants to “burn the midnight oil” with their holiday job search — by sending out applications (that nobody is reading) during the holidays — I came across some really bad reasons to conduct a holiday job search.

Networking Opportunities While I usually support opportunism, there’s also “fools gold opportunism” that is just a waste of time and energy. Authors suggest using the holiday spirit as an excuse to reach out to your professional network to exhume hidden job opportunities. 

However, I would argue not only are such plays obviously opportunistic, especially if you haven’t spoken with that person in the preceding calendar year, but people are generally busier in the Holiday season. 

Hiring managers don’t want to tack on a pointless informational interview with you— or add just one more annoying AF task to their harried holiday calendar — even as an excuse to binge on copious amounts of pumpkin spice coffee. 

Volunteering I have never hired anyone because of volunteer work listed on their resume. Like EVER. Such advice must be a unicorn relic from the ‘90’s! Therefore, if you think donning a Santa Claus suit will help you in backdooring your way past the queue (even for Salvation Army jobs), you will only get piss-stained trousers for your efforts.

Seasonal Jobs Can Lead to Permanent Work Uh, no they can’t. That’s why it’s called SEASONAL work! 

Ordinarily, you can’t use a seasonal job as an on-the-job interview to stick around permanently, because the job (think a personal gift shopper or Santa’s helper) doesn’t exist outside the holiday season. Or, there is not enough customer demand to keep the position viable year round. 

In other cases, office temp jobs go away when everyone comes back from holiday. It’s simply a game of musical chairs and the temp is ALWAYS the “odd man out” of the medley.

Turns out, my mall McDonald’s doesn’t need 5 fry cooks year round! Who knew?  

Conclusion Your gut feeling is spot on here. 

Sometimes, there isn’t more than meets the eye. 

Companies are under-staffed with everyone on vacation. 

With other priorities looming, skeletal staffs can only do so much hiring.

Nobody wants to onboard new talent when half the staff (and possibly the new manager) is off building sloppy-ass snowmen somewhere. 

Even during fully staffed periods of the midwinter and early spring, the selection process trudges from 3 to 6 weeks. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect an even more glacial selection process with key decision makers out of the office for extended times AND then they have to play catch up when they return. 

Companies prefer to hire in the spring because most industries outside of retail, delivery, hospitality, and tourism, experience a holiday slump that doesn’t justify adding new talent to their books. When companies close out their end-of-year deadlines, they can then focus on the future, full throttle, after one year rolls into the next. 

Santa Claus wouldn't get hired during the holidays either!

Last Word — The Ironic Self Fulfilling Prophecy Jobseekers believe companies are under hiring freezes during the holidays, dissuading them to apply. This leads to a smaller applicant pool.

Employers notice there are less qualified and less total applicants per job posting during the holidays. This induces companies to wait until the new year for a better and larger selection of talent to resume full-scale hiring. 

Both jobseekers and employers know interview scheduling is a nightmare during the holidays…and want to avoid adding this hassle to their to do list. 

This is why jobseekers don’t hunt during the holidays and why employers are less inclined to recruit during the holidays. 

They are both right. 

There’s nobody applying — and if there were — nobody is around to read their application anyway! 

Stay off Indeed until the Christmas Tree comes down.

You’ll be happier and more productive this holiday season.