Culpwrit

Many students look forward to year-end holidays as an opportunity to catch up on sleep and home-cooked food.  For those seeking internships or full-time jobs, this time of year can be a surprisingly good time for career networking.

Take a few minutes now to map out your holiday networking strategy.  A previous post lists 10 holiday networking tips, key of which include mining job prospects at social events that should be added to a contact spreadsheet.  Add all social contacts to the spreadsheet, noting their jobs, email/snail-mail/social media addresses, phone numbers and interests.  A networking spreadsheet becomes an important base from which to work when you launch a full-scale search.  Regularly update the spreadsheet and develop a stay-in-touch game plan.

Google offers a variety of free spreadsheet templates, including one that allows you to keep track of your job search actions.  Besides capturing key contact information, this spreadsheet allows you to easily track progress throughout your search.

The holidays also are a good time to seek some face time with busy executives who often have a bit more free time when requests for informational interviews are more readily accepted.  And be sure to follow up all contacts with hand-written notes.  With a little planning and follow-up, you’ll stand out from the crowd during the holidays.  If you do nothing else to advance your job search during the holiday lull, be sure make time to create your personal networking spreadsheet.  The process of doing so will make make your job search more strategic and productive.