While it's true that shopping and partying generally consume people, business still goes on.  Want the inside track?  Stay focused on your job search throughout the season and you can be at the top of the heap for hiring in 2006.

Nightly Networking

There are plenty of opportunities to make valuable connections throughout December.  Get yourself invited to as many holiday parties as you can.  It doesn't matter whether they're neighborhood get-togethers or huge corporate soirees.  All of them offer the chance to meet new people in a relaxed setting.

While you know you're focused on finding the folks who can connect you to the right job opportunity, this is not the time to slap on a nametag and carry your resumes under your arm.  You need to be pleasant, cheerful and, above all, appropriate.  There's nothing worse than that guy who buttonholes people and whacks them with the hard sell.

Your goal is to meet a couple of new contacts at each event and approach them as a potential acquaintance, not a frantic job hunter.  Take the time to establish personal connections - that's what networking is all about.  Introduce yourself, give a little context as to why you're attending the function and get other people to do the same.  Listen closely and you're likely to find a link.

In a professional gathering, check to see whether you might have a colleague in common.  No?  Try former employers, school experiences, or sports. Maybe you can discuss a recent trend in your industry.  Avoid politics and religion - it can be dangerous to make assumptions about shared points of view. 

By the end of the evening, you want to have collected a few business cards and get at least one follow-up call scheduled.  This is absolutely a numbers game, but I don't recommend that you approach it like speed dating.  It's not a contest to see how many people you can meet in a single evening.  You're looking for quality in your contacts and that takes some patience. 

However, be careful that you don't get stuck talking to one person for too long.  It's hard to extract yourself from a downhill dialogue, but it can be done.  Politely excuse yourself to answer your cell phone (on vibrate, that's why it didn't ring) or catch someone you've been looking for all night who's just right now heading for the door.  Make a beeline for the exit, take a few minutes and then come back in.  It almost always works, but if not, there's still the bar… or the bathroom.

Friends and Family

In social situations, there may not be many new people to meet, but that doesn't mean it's a lost opportunity.  Everyone in attendance knows lots of other people - relatives, co-workers, buddies - who may be able to help you. 

You need to develop a short, low-key pitch statement about looking for a new job.  Something about advancing your career or a new challenge, followed up with a concise description of what you want to do.  It shouldn't be your primary topic, just something that can be worked into a conversation … if it makes sense.  Be discreet.  You wouldn't want to embarrass your host by making other guests uncomfortable. 

If you get positive feedback, don't turn this into a serious exchange right then and there.  Schedule a time, get a phone number and agree to get back in touch later for a longer discussion. Remember, it's a party, not an interview.

Follow-Up is Everything

Once you've made some contacts, it's key to get back in touch quickly.  If you agreed to a specific date, make sure that you hold to it.  Even if you can't reach someone on the first try, your commitment counts. 

Your objective with this second contact is to get a brief meeting - a half-hour is perfect - to deliver the longer version of your pitch.  This is the opportunity to expand on what you're hoping to do and ask for help.  It's implicit in any networking session that you're looking for a job connection, but be specific about what you want your networking connection to do for you. 

Of course, you'd love to find that perfect position with your contact's company. Mostly, this doesn't happen.  The trick is to use the meeting to ask for other kinds of assistance, like referrals to your contact's colleagues in other companies.  Or recommendations of where else you might look for the kind of job you've described as your target.  At the very least, you can ask for a resume critique. 

Regardless, there are two rules for these second networking meetings:
1) Thank the contact profusely for the gift of the time; and
2) Respect that gift and leave promptly.

You can always ask if you can get back in touch again.  And if you get a yes, make sure you do it.  Fulfilling the commitments you make is the way to cement the relationship.

Cold Calling at Christmas

One of the benefits of the holiday season is that people are generally in better moods.  This makes them more receptive to considering a prospecting call from a jobseeker.  This is more likely to work if you research properly and target companies that are doing well (hint: read the business news.) A well-placed compliment never hurts.

Another benefit is that people take days off to prepare.  Why is this a benefit, you ask?  Because it increases the likelihood that hiring managers will answer their own phones.  No one is there to screen calls or put you into voicemail.  Here's another tactic: call early.  Or late.  It may not be official, but flextime is standard as we get closer to the end of the year.

More

An alternate possibility is that the only connection you'll get is to voicemail.  Be prepared to leave a clear, concise message, including when you intend to call again.  It's not a bad idea to write it out beforehand, so you can read it and not have to stammer through it.  Top out at three messages a week.  Any more and you're a stalker. 

Questions?  Comments?  Write to me at Jamie@jobcircle.com.

Happy Holidays.

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Jamie Fabian spent more than 15 years as a human resources executive before changing careers to become a senior project manager for a growing IT consulting company.  Now in management consulting for a large Pharma company, Jamie would like to be seen as a hybrid of Tom Peters, Tom Jackson, and Tom Wolfe, but spends too much time working, driving carpool and watching mindless TV to write more than this column.  You can contact Jamie with questions and comments at jamie@jobcircle.com.