A Little Distraction

I just got back from spending Thanksgiving in Las Vegas.  We don’t usually travel at Thanksgiving, (especially to Las Vegas) but we intentionally wanted a holiday distraction…and boy, did we get it.   Since the goal of the trip was distraction, we immersed ourselves in the feast for the eyes that Sin City has to offer.  Just walking the Strip is distracting and it helps fast track your feelings of thankfulness.  So what does this topic have to do with job search?

I imagine even if you didn’t travel last week, you still found yourself engaged in a few distracting activities: eating, visiting with family and friends, watching football, basketball and parades or just relaxing. I encourage distraction with my clients – it’s good for clearing your head, getting a fresh perspective on your situation, and simply re-energizing yourself.  But if you were employed, today you’d be back at your desk, calling on customers and attacking the stack of work that piled up when you were gone.

The same needs to be true if you’re looking for a job.  Too often I seen clients distractedly float through from Thanksgiving to the New Year, and frankly it’s a mistake.  As of today, Nov 28, we have 4 work weeks before the typical week off between Christmas and the New Year.  FOUR WEEKS!  I know there are plenty of holiday activities to keep you busy, but there’s still a lot of time and it’s a mistake to believe nothing can happen on the job front in the next 28 days.

So use these next four weeks wisely:

• holiday networking events are abundant – use them to your advantage
• catch up/stay in contact with family, friends and networking contacts
• don’t wait until January to start exercising – be ready to start the new year feeling great
• tweak your resume based on recent feedback you’ve received
• revise your introduction based on what’s been working and not working
• focus on some job search tasks you’ve been putting off to lessen your January overwhelm
• update your LinkedIn profile and send connection invitations to new contacts
• do some research on a new company you’d love to work for

As you can see, there’s lots to keep you busy and productive on your job search in the next four weeks.  It’s great you had a little distraction last week, just don’t stay distracted!

Brenda