Time is of the Essence to Avoid Holiday Slowdown

It’s mid-October, but I am already concerned that slow-moving job seekers will get stuck in the Thanksgiving and Christmas slowdown if resumes are not in the hiring managers’ hands this week! Let’s do the math: hiring managers take 2 weeks to pick their top 5-7 candidates.

So at the end of October, they might start scheduling phone screens, which will take a week to set up and another week to conduct. We are now in the first week of November. Managers take this week to select their top 3 people to bring in for the second and third weeks of November.

The fourth week is Thanksgiving, where everyone is off traveling. Refocused early December, employers start scheduling final rounds with senior management, which takes a couple weeks given the busy schedules of executives. We are now at quarter/year end craziness and the holiday shutdown. The moral of the story: get going now!