Keep Your Job Search Hot This Winter

Jennifer Fry
Careerminds Consultant

The weather is turning cold, the leaves have fallen from the trees, and the days feel shorter and shorter—it definitely looks and feels like winter. As the seasons change and the year comes closer to an end, you may be looking for a change in your job search. Your efforts so far haven’t gotten you where you’d like to be, and it’s beginning to weigh on your spirits. Don’t fret. There are plenty of things you can do this winter to boost your job search and your confidence.

1. Stay active. Don’t let your efforts falter, even if you feel like giving up. There’s no way you can win if you don’t play the game, right?
2. Boost your qualifications. Feel like you resume needs a little something extra? Use this winter to learn a new skill or strengthen one you’ve already got. Learn Photoshop, brush up on your foreign language skills, sign up for a social networking account.
3. Switch it up. Getting bored with your job search routine? It’s ok to do things a little differently, especially if what you are doing hasn’t produced many results. Start using a new online job board, change the font or style of your resume, rethink your cover letter.
4. Use the holidays to network. We’ve said this about a hundred times over recent weeks, but we just can’t say it enough. Holiday parties are a great opportunity to make new connections, and the holidays are a great way to make contact with your current network.
5. Write down you accomplishments. Think you haven’t achieved much this year? Try writing a list of every effort you’ve made and the result—even if you haven’t gotten a new job, you have accomplished something. Wrote a new resume—check. Made new connections on LinkedIn—check. These are all steps in the right direction.
6. Volunteer. The holidays are the perfect time to give back to your community, and your time spent volunteering will provide an addition to your resume, and possibly a new connection.

If you fear your job search is losing steam, try following these steps to nudge it awake, again. Don’t let the frosty air put the freeze on your efforts!

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Careerminds provides scalable, strategic solutions to organizations seeking affordable, web-based outplacement services. Using a Web 2.0 e-learning platform that delivers affordable, online career transition services, Careerminds provides a high-tech and high-touch blend of on-demand career transition education supported by senior-level career consultants to help displaced workers reenter the workforce quickly.