Renata (00:24.702)
Hi, welcome back to the job hunting podcast or welcome if this is your first time. Today’s episode is about something I like to call end of the year, hibby gibbies. That anxiety and uncertainty that creeps up in job seekers as the year draws to a close, especially around so many holidays. We start with Halloween this week and then Thanksgiving and then Christmas.
And this can be really unsettling time if you’re still looking for that next role and you’re not seeing it coming anytime soon. But I don’t want you to worry because we’re here to help and I want you to stay focused and use this holiday season to your advantage. I’m an expert in doing this. I’ve done this personally myself in your situation. And now I teach other people to do it.
Before we dive in, we have something special to celebrate as well. So let’s keep going.
Renata (01:26.51)
it was five years ago on Halloween, the 31st of October, 2019, that we started the job hunting podcast. I decided to start celebrating it the day after because I love Halloween. Even though I don’t live in the U S I, spent part of my childhood there and fell in love with Halloween. And, so I celebrate on the 1st of November to make sure that I don’t double up.
But I wanted to take a moment to thank all of you listeners for all your incredible, incredible support and engagement over the years. hear the most lovely messages and things that you have to say about how this podcast has helped you in so many ways. And if you just found this, please know that there are lots of people that have come before you that really enjoyed listening to this show. And it makes me so proud.
I also like to thank all of the speakers and the guests that I’ve had over the years. I lost count. I used to write it down and thank them every year, but the list has grown so big. But if you just scroll through the job hunting podcast website or my website’s blog, you will see that there are lots and lots of interesting people that we’ve interviewed over the years.
If you’ve been with us from the start or you’re just joining today, I am super grateful that you found us and that you’re here, that you’re part of this community. There are many, many more episodes to come. I will tell you what, I’m looking at it now. I have episodes already planned and organized until episode 289. And I think this one is 262.
So we’re going to be fine. I never run out of ideas for this podcast. So that’s the great thing. But having said that, you have like an archive of episodes to go through. And I know that there are some of you that have listened to every single one of them and you have your favorites. And some of you tell me that you listen to some of them several times and it just warms my heart. So once again, thank you. Now, before we talk about the topic of the day,
Renata (03:36.492)
I have some news to share with you. First of all is LinkedIn. LinkedIn has finished, I believe, with the job interview tool. The job interview tool was really an under the radar tool and I understand that they may have thought it wasn’t good or it needed to go, but I loved it and I am saddened by the news.
I don’t know. still have this hope that they will come back with some sort of better AI driven interview sort of tool resource for everyone to use because I always thought that that one was great already. And if they could improve on it instead of remove it, that would be fantastic because what I liked about the LinkedIn interview
tool is not so much the questions. Of course, the list of questions were great. There were lots and lots of interesting questions there that you could try to answer. But what I wanted was for that environment of the awkwardness of having to record yourself answering the question. That is really the goal, making it as close to a video interview as possible or as close to
an online interview as possible for you. So it’s gone. You will have to do it yourself. know, so open up Zoom and record yourself doing the interviews, preparing for them. The awkwardness of doing that is what, you know, will make it really good for you in terms of preparation for the stress of the real thing. The other thing that I thought was really interesting and I saw this trendy on TikTok.
is you using Chat2BT because I use Chat2BT all the time. I have hundreds and hundreds of tabs open on Chat2BT for each of my clients, know, each of the podcast episodes, et cetera. So I use it a lot. So what I did today was I went there based on a trend on LinkedIn, sorry, not LinkedIn, on TikTok that said you should ask Chat2BT the following question.
Renata (05:51.348)
What do you know about me that I don’t know about myself based on our previous interactions? I loved this question and it provided a short, maybe a page long answer for me, you know, about my style of coaching, you know, what I, I’m, what my thought leadership is, how, you know, what I think about.
technology, know, AI in particular, my approach to working with my corporate clients and my individual clients, my flair for strategic positioning and marketing. And then it went on to explain that in two paragraphs. I don’t know, if you’re a big user of Chat2BT, maybe test out this question. I’ll repeat that for you. What do you know about me that I don’t know about myself?
based on our previous interactions. I think that might be an interesting exercise for you to do. I thought it was really fun. I also wanted to say that the response I’m getting about the Amazon episode from a few weeks back has been really incredible. I knew it was going to be controversial. It’s not so much that it’s controversial. It’s a lot of people, you know, reflecting on why Amazon is doing this. Why are they?
you know, so crystallized on this idea of bringing everybody back to the office. So if you haven’t seen this episode yet, is, my gosh, I’ll put the link below, okay? But it was about the hybrid work presentation I did here in Melbourne for the Slade Group. And I said, you know, hybrid is the future, remote work is, you know, is important for your…
employee value proposition, it’s the new ambitions, they have changed. It’s not just salary, it’s not just career progression, it’s flexibility, yada yada. So I said all that a day later, a day later, Amazon announced that they were bringing everybody full time in the office. And I’m like, what do I do? Should I hide under a rock? I was talking to like really senior executives in Melbourne and I decided to…
Renata (08:16.684)
to just go for it with my instinct. And I think I did well. saw, I listened to an episode of a Ted talk with two academics discussing it and being quite a critic of the Amazon announcement. And they explained it as soft, soft layoffs. And I thought that that was an interesting take that I hadn’t thought of.
the fact that Amazon is laying off a lot of people. It has been doing that for quite some time. I actually got a couple of clients because of that in Seattle. it’s now, what’s gonna happen is that high performing people, people that can find jobs elsewhere, people that really need the flexibility, people potentially with disabilities, or we know that women,
usually need more flexibility than men because of motherhood versus fatherhood. I don’t want to go into that because that’s not my area of expertise. I’m just saying that happens. yeah, parents in general, but women in particular might struggle. People with disability might struggle. So there could be some sort of diversity and inclusion lower scores for Amazon in the future. You know, potentially some problems with
high performance, if they’re high performing individuals decide that they can work somewhere else. And if they start opening up opportunities for exceptions, that will be lower scores for culture. That was a really interesting podcast that I listened to and I thought that they made some very good cases. So I’ll put the link below for that one as well, if you’re interested in that situation from a…
From a leader’s perspective, I think it’s important for leaders to be more aware of what your employee value proposition is in 2024 versus 2010. And we can’t be very nostalgic about how things used to be in the past. We need to be up with the times. One thing that these women said that I thought was fantastic was exactly what I said in that boardroom briefing for the Slade Group.
Renata (10:34.566)
with those senior executives is that we need to invest in professional learning and development. And that’s what I was focusing on and on the fact that I’m using the strengths assessment test for individuals and groups to bring together teams that are working in hybrid environments. And I was really happy when they kind of said that because it made my work more validated. I really enjoyed it.
Renata (11:01.332)
Now let’s dive into the topic of today. The topic of today, which is this end of year job search anxiety that is natural. If you’re feeling that, I understand completely. I don’t want you to feel bad about it. The holiday season can really be one of those tough times for job seekers. It’s not only that you’re still haven’t found jobs. you’re going to, you’re about to lose your job. You know, a lot of redundancies and restructures happen.
at this time of the year as well, which is really unfortunate. But between the festivities and family obligations, there’s the sense that job opportunities are on pause until January. There’s also this sense that, I lost my job. Now I have to, and I still don’t have a job, and now I have to meet with my uncle and my auntie and my parents and my sister and my brother and tell them that. Maybe they don’t even know. So many job seekers find themselves really anxious.
you know, quite a busy time around November, December, even January with people that are running out of time to secure a position, not knowing what to do when they lose their jobs towards the end of the year. look, it’s true that hiring doesn’t really happen as much at this time. It tends to slow down. Here in the Southern Hemisphere, where I am at the moment as I’m recording this episode, it slows down because it’s summer.
and it would be equivalent to the market slowing down because it’s July, August in the US, in the UK and so forth. But if you are in the Northern Hemisphere, you have the holidays, there is a couple of weeks that people are away. You also, for many organizations, it’s the end of financial year, if they follow a calendar year. So the budgets have ended in December, the new budgets.
you know, kick in January, but there’s a little bit of a lag time. If there are new positions to advertise, they tend to be advertised towards Feb-March. So yeah, it is a slow down, but there are actually some advantages to job hunting during this period. I always felt that. In fact, when I first launched my group coaching program, I launched it to be done in January because
Renata (13:24.948)
as personally as a job seeker in my past, I wanted to be doing something in January. And I know that career planning and design is better done when you have the time, when you’re not anxious about applying for roles. So if there are less roles to apply for, you can preload some of the work into that slow season. And believe it or not, companies are still hiring. I have had jobs that were advertised during this time and had
a deadline for application on the 6th of January, you and I’m not kidding. And that was in Australia during the holiday summer season. They may even feel that there is a greater sense of urgency to fill roles like before Christmas, if it’s still December, for example, because they need to use those budgets, you know, before the reset of the budgets or, you know, they want to kick off a project early in the year and they want to lock people in right now.
I even tell my clients that, you know, be ready because the fact that you are available right now might be an advantage for you compared to a job candidate that needs to give notice that they need to leave their job. So rather than put your job search on hold or start to slow down because you think there’s nothing there, I would keep an eye open because I think it might be a good
time for opportunities that others might oversee. So consider this as a time to double down if you want to. But if you don’t want to, it’s OK too. You say, all right, I know it’s going to slow down. I have other things that I want to focus on, family. I love the holidays. I want to take that time off. You can do that.
Tips for managing the anxiety, whichever way you go, if you want to take a break or if you want to keep on going, the thing you have to manage is the anxiety. So I’m going to be talking now to those of you who want to stick to your job search routine, right? So you want to continue looking for work. If you want to do that full time or if you have the availability to do that full time, that’s great.
Renata (15:47.85)
If you have other things going on, Christmas, cooking to do, Thanksgiving cooking to do, whatever it is, stick to a job search routine that’s not as intense. And one of the best ways to do this is to be consistent. If you’re doing it two hours a day or eight hours a day, set aside that time, dedicate it each day, each week for searching job boards, applying for positions.
continue to network in a more casual, informal way. People may not be in the office, but you still can email them, send them a Thanksgiving card or something like that, an email, message. Well, it may take a bit longer to get the responses because people might be away. Maintaining that connection, nurturing those connections, but most importantly for you, maintaining your routine can really reduce
that feeling of being stuck and being helpless during this time. I want you to continue to make progress. Even if it’s a 1 % progress a day, it will be amazing after one month what you can achieve. And many job seekers step back during this period. So you could face less competition as well, staying active through December. If they are not listening to this podcast, you have a competitive advantage over them.
Network during holiday gatherings. Now, when I say network, I don’t want you to feel like, icky about it. I’m talking about talking to people, just saying, how are you doing? Tell me about your job. Be listening to people sharing their expertise about what they do, where they work, what they love about their work, what they don’t like about that work. You’re not asking for anything. You’re just listening. And if they ask you questions, you can share.
You can say, look, I’ve been thinking about doing this. What is your advice? What would you do if you were me? And as you meet with people, open up with them, reconnecting with your friends and family and colleagues, them know that you are exploring new job opportunities, new career opportunities. People are often in a more giving mood around the holiday times, but they are definitely in a more
Renata (18:11.448)
giving mood if you’re asking for advice rather than help. So remember that. And someone may have connections or know of openings that might be a good fit for you. And even if they don’t know anything right now, just the fact that you’ve raised it with them means that in a month’s time or two months or three months time, they will think of you for something because you will be top of mind. You would have told them and they would then know. So if something comes up, they will think of you.
Renata (18:41.834)
Keep it light, keep it positive, frame it as exploring options rather than stressing about finding a job. Okay. I think it’s good to give yourself permission to feel human and be human with, you know, an inner circle. But this is more than that. is you exploring opportunities and doing a bit of the research that we discussed in the episode about grounded research from a few weeks back.
I will try to remember to put a link down below as well, but it’s easy to find. It’s not that far away from this episode.
Then I want you to reassess your goals and strengths. Use this time for reflection, take a step back, evaluate what’s been working for you in your job search so far and what hasn’t. Maybe there is a need to source some sort of service to help you, like the services that I provide, some of my courses that you can do even if I am taking a break, which I will be.
before Christmas and New Year. So my break is not that big. It will be probably two, three weeks max. I think two weeks if I’m not mistaken. And you could still go to my website and do reset your career, for example, which is a short course. It’s not expensive and it will give you so much value. even the strengths assessment test will be a fantastic thing for you to do. It doesn’t require you and I being in front of each other, but if you have the time.
This could mean that you could be updating your resume with something like the Researcher Career Short Course. It has the templates there. Adding new skills to your LinkedIn profile with something like the Strengths Assessment Test. you know, doing your research, you can identify industries or roles that are better aligned with your long-term goals. So having a clear sense of direction can really help alleviate the anxiety and make you feel more prepared to hit the ground running.
Renata (20:42.008)
come the new year.
Renata (20:46.712)
The next thing I want to talk to you about is levering the hiring before year end, right? So there is a push there. I have seen it. I have seen it work with clients and companies have specific hiring goals. They need to meet them before the end of the fiscal year. If they work on a calendar year, that happens in many countries. I’m in Australia. I worked for organizations that operated on calendar year.
Most organizations in Australia are July to June, but there are several, including in higher ed and government where I worked, there are calendar year. And in the US is of course very common, UK as well. So be on the lookout for these end of year roles, especially in industries like retail, healthcare, technology, and continue applying for those positions, whatever positions you can find that fit your expertise.
but also be strategic at companies with specific Q4 hiring needs. I think that that’s the fourth quarter of the year. Your persistent could really pay off if you can and want to be strategic around this time.
Now I want you to also think about staying productive and upskilling. that perseverance and that grit to carve out the time. If there are no jobs that are advertised and you’ve allocated time to do your job search that day and you look and you don’t see anything, I don’t want you to be disappointed or just go to Netflix.
Right? So if the job opportunities are not there, focus on enhancing your skillset. This could be through reading, you know, I love articles that, you know, you can find in good newspapers, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times here in Australia, we have The Australian, we have Financial Review. You know, this is not about gossip or even politics. This is about news, about businesses, news about
Renata (22:53.186)
the areas of expertise for you. could be industry magazines, professional magazines and articles.
Cough cough cough
Renata (23:19.17)
This could also be online courses. There are certain courses like my courses that are about career readiness. If you have already bought them, do them again. Repetition is the best thing. Some people go through some of my modules over and over again, or master classes. If you’re doing the reset course, which is a short course, they go through it over and over again until they get the hang of it. Like the job application master class inside reset is one that people should watch more than once.
But then you have courses about areas of expertise that you want to develop, reskill or upskill. It could be that you’re in finance and you want to know more about ESG or you are in technology and you want to know more about cybersecurity or you’re a project manager and you don’t have a certification yet. All of these things, you know, this is a good time to do those online courses, certifications, or even just readings to…
keep you up to date with the trends in your sector. So those are two different types of professional development programs that you can do. And it really is very important. Not everything needs to go on LinkedIn. You know, I find it really funny when people want to add every single certification in little course they do on LinkedIn. This is not necessarily a LinkedIn or a resume edition. It’s really for your own benefit so that when you’re…
sitting in front of your peers for interviews and then beyond when you’re working that you know what they’re talking about. I feel like if we are out of the workforce or if we’re changing industries or sectors, we need to really know how to speak the language of your new workplace. And this is a proactive way to use the downtime. You don’t need to fill that time with this, but if you have already allocated the time and there are no jobs,
this is what you should do. Then of course, take time to self care, right? Remember that taking breaks is also part of healthy job searching strategies and the holiday can be really emotionally challenging. It may seem like you have a lot of time and then it just flies in and you don’t. And if you’re experiencing stress and anxiety, you don’t want to compound that with even more stress and anxiety. So schedule
Renata (25:43.202)
great activities that can help you relax and recharge. And it could be watching some Christmas movies on Netflix or spending time with family or going for nice walks, laughing with your loved ones, a game of cards, everything that brings you joy, whatever it is, is important to do it. And if you’re not the sort of large family person and you’re gonna be spending your Christmas more or less solo, then find ways
to make yourself happy and joyful and relaxed. It could be mindfulness exercises, it could be meditation, it could be going out for a walk and enjoying seeing the holiday decorations, whatever it is that brings you joy. And then keep an eye on the new year, right? Remember that 2025 is going to be better than 2024 if you’ve been listening for the past episodes and they’re…
Some that are still to come. My interview with Jeff Slade is an episode coming up in a couple of weeks. I want you to know that 2025 is definitely going to be better than 2024. 2024 has been a slump year, a slow year for the job market. And while the end of the year can bring some extra stress for you,
Focusing on the bigger picture will certainly help. The new year will bring, it always does, brings a surge of job openings, people coming back from holidays, people wanting to meet again, catch up and take advantage of that and maybe recharge so that you’re ready for that when it happens. If you end 2024 on a proactive note, you will be ready to seize 2025.
And if you are in, depending on where you are, you need to be ready for when it happens. So here in Australia, the day that things really start to kick off and get really warm and lots of jobs advertised is after Australia Day. So Australia Day is a holiday here. It’s the 26th of January. So you know that after that, things are going to really heat up. And in fact, I’m going to have the group coaching program.
Renata (28:05.632)
around that time as well beginning because that’s the best time to be looking for work is February, March in the Southern Hemisphere. I always have people in the Northern Hemisphere join because again, know, winter is easy, budgets are more available, more flexible for those in the US, you know, the election is over, the new president will be stated and things will start to move on, you know.
So look, as you navigate this next few weeks before Christmas, I just want you to remember that your journey is all about being persistent and resilient. Job searching is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. All the things that you’re learning now about your ambitions, people you’re meeting, the networks that you’re nurturing, those are going to be there for this next job of yours and for the next one and for the next one.
So even if the job search is not right now giving you immediate results, every application and every networking effort is a step towards your new future. And don’t let the end of the year heebie-jeebies throw you off course, okay? Celebrate what you have achieved this year, both big and small. Remember the 1 %…
better every day, the 1 % effort every day and set your sights on new goals for the year ahead that are aligned with your purpose, with your new ambitions and your new career plans. And once again, thank you for being here on the podcast with us. Five years, I can’t believe it’s happening. It’s half a decade. my gosh, it’s amazing. So I am delighted and a bit emotional today.
So thank you so much. I’ll see you again next time. Bye bye.
