It’s time for winter break. This might be your last winter break before graduating. You are probably tempted to say “since I’ll probably never again have a month off, I’m going to relax and enjoy the downtime.”  Well, you can still slow your pace and get some much needed sleep while;

• Starting to strategize your job search plan. Put a timeline together from January to May. What do you to have done by when?
• If you didn’t set up an internship, consider job shadowing or conducting informational interviews. The sole purpose is to better understand what a particular job/field will entail. Was your impression of the job field realistic?
• Play job search games. There are many books on the subject.

Two of my favorite job search games are;

Write a short story about your “perfect” day of work.   What time would you go into work, where would you go, where do you live, and what does your day look like?

Another is to go through actual job ads or postings. Which ones grab your attention and why? If you are looking at postings go to indeed.com or simplyhired.com and use a few broad search terms just to see what is out there.

There are obviously many other tasks you can work on during this time. But if you continue to make progress on each step in the job search process, it won’t become overwhelming and you will build your self-confidence and your personal brand.