Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! These are the last few days before the six or so weeks of holiday festivities and family gatherings that seem to take up so much of our time and attention. While it may seem like an good time to take a small step back from your tax job search, I’d encourage you to think again. Right now is a great time to really get a leg up on your job search competition. While many other job seekers are using the excuse of the holidays to take a break, this could be a good opportunity to get your resume seen.

Right now, especially in tax, there is a great demand for tax professionals of all levels. Public accounting firms want to finalize their new tax teams and be ready to go for another busy season and corporate tax teams are assessing their needs for the coming year. Randall Hansen, a Ph.D and career guru from Quint Careers lists Six Steps to Successful Job-Hunting Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.

Use holiday get togethers with family and friends to see out job leads. The people closest to you have your best interests at heart, and if you allow them, will assist you in uncovering potential leads to new jobs.

Volunteer your time. So many organizations need help during the holidays, and while giving up time you could be spending job-hunting seems counter-productive, the contacts you meet while providing your time and expertise could certainly lead to new and unexpected job leads. (Future Tax Leaders, a great organization based in Colorado has volunteer and continuing education opportunities all the time)

Attend all professional holiday events – and bring along networking cards and copies of your resume.

Send out holiday cards. A great way during the holidays to follow up with recruiters and hiring managers, as well as reconnect with more distant network contacts (including former bosses, co-workers, customers, and suppliers), is sending simple and tasteful holiday cards.

Renew your follow-up efforts for job interviews. For jobs in which you have already submitted your resume, intensify your efforts to land an interview.

Lay the groundwork for a New Year job-search surge. While this might not be practical for those of you in public accounting, it never hurts to make sure your linked-in profile and resume are current and that you are in touch with people in your network about job opportunities in the future.

Here’s wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. I am grateful for all of those who have allowed me to be a little part of your job search efforts and look forward to getting to know many more of you in the year ahead.

~Addie Cooke

Executive Tax Recruiter