Take a Rest from Your Job Search
By Marilyn Albert

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and the beginning a very long Holiday Season if you are still in a job search. This is for those who have been job seeking throughout this year and still have not found a job. When you are working the Holidays are synonymous with gift giving, spending time with family and friends. It’s time to rush around and find the perfect gift and once you do, smiling with the sheer joy of giving it away. It’s full of feel good stuff: food, smells, and laughter.

When you’re unemployed it absolute disaster, the very sights and sounds that made you happy, now remind you of all your misfortune.

The message I want to give to all job seekers is BRAVO! You have worked hard. You have applied for jobs you were eager about; as well as, those jobs you thought you would never apply for. You politely said thank you for the opportunity to interview when the rejection came.

To families here are 3 things you can do for the job seeker:
1. Thank them for all the hard work they have done and how they have stuck to the job search!
2. Let the job seeker know how proud you are of them for never giving up!
3. Listen, listen and listen some more. It doesn’t matter if you have heard the same story a dozen times. Listen, again.

Three gifts for the unemployed:
1. Massage certificate
2. Department store certificate
3. Movie passes and concession-stand certificate

Most importantly, here is my advice for the job seeker during the Holiday season.
1. Take a break from your job search. You have worked hard the past few months (even the year). Beginning Nov 27 through Jan 1, 2010, don’t worry about your job search. You have the greatest gift of all—time to spend with your family and friends. Take advantage of this, it may not happen again.
2. Clear off your desk and desktop. Clean up your work area. Clean up your “head.”
3. Organized your job search (get rid of outdated job postings and failed resumes)
4. Have your resume reviewed by a professional and revise it. Don’t start the year with a resume that didn’t get you very far last year.
5. Set some new job search goals to begin on January 2, 2010 (ask about the two below)
a. LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/
b. Start a blog https://www.blogger.com/start