When you think about the upcoming long weekend, things like relaxing, reading a good book, making a wonderful meal, or spending time with family and friends are likely topping your priority list. And we think all those things should! Things not topping your list; kicking off your job search. If you’ve been ignoring your gut feeling or the little voice in your head that’s encouraging you to start looking at what’s out there, we’re going to give you five real reasons that you should consider spending some of the upcoming weekend exploring your career options.
1.Fewer people are applying over holiday weekends
According to indeed.com, in a normal week, job search activity on their site peaks on Tuesday and slopes down to Saturday, then picks up again. But on a three-day weekend, job search declines as the holiday weekend approaches and takes longer to reach normal patterns after the holiday weekend. So if you’re searching online over the holiday weekend, and are looking for open jobs to discuss with your recruiter after the weekend, you might see things that other people aren’t seeing, and will be part of a smaller applicant pool. As a friendly reminder, we recommend talking to your recruiter before you apply online because if you apply online to the job before your recruiter sends you, your recruiter can’t represent you!
2.Anything you need for your interview outfit will likely be on sale
We aren’t suggesting you go out and buy a whole new interview outfit or wardrobe. But if there’s a piece or two that you’ve been wanting to buy to complete the outfit that makes you feel your best, this might be the weekend to snag it on sale.
3.You have time to update your LinkedIn profile/ update your resume
4.Your network is on vacation too
While that might not seem like a good thing, if you’re sending LinkedIn messages over a holiday weekend, they’re more likely to get answered because there are fewer work related emails and messages flooding their inboxes. It’s all about the law of averages here. The fewer total messages that your intended recipient is dealing with, the more likely they are to respond to the ones they are getting. Especially if you’re communicating with someone that you like or respect and will be happy to hear from you. The vibe of spending time with friends and family during the holiday weekend will likely influence them to want to respond to you if they consider you a friend or a former part of their work family.
5.Talk to that friend of a friend that works at your dream company
Speaking of friends and family, holiday weekends inspire people to put together gatherings to include their friends and family. There are always people that attend these parties that you see whenever you go to an event with this circle of friends or family that you never seem to take time to talk to. You may have heard that they work at the company that you are dying to snag a job at, but haven’t had the right reason to bring up work. Tell your host or hostess that you’re looking for a new job and would love an introduction to this person. Getting an introduction will mean that you don’t have to address that fact that you’ve seen each other a million times and have never taken the opportunity to chat, rather, it will give you a non-awkward way to finally make it happen.
We are not suggesting you use your whole weekend for job search related activities. You have earned your R&R. But if you’re thinking about kicking off a job search, hopefully you’re now thinking that this holiday weekend might be just the time to do it!