4 Things to Do Now to Prepare for Your 2019 Job Search

4 Things to Do Now to Prepare for Your 2019 Job Search4 Things to Do Now to Prepare for Your 2019 Job Search Most people looking for a job put it on hold in December. Thats generally because hiring slows down during the holiday season as people take vacations and lose time to seasonal events, and companies do other year-end activities like budgeting and employee evaluations.December may elend be when youll land a lot of interviews for permanent work, but its still a time of opportunity. If you know you will be seeking a job in the new year, you should take the month to get as ready as you can for the new year and the return of normal hiring rhythms.Of course, if youre out of work , you should not put your search on hold for December. Work on all of these things while you keep looking, because a hiring slowdown isnt a hiring stoppage. And if youre employed but ready to move on, these are good ways to get ready.Its not enough to just update your resume. You also need t o researchwhether resume format for your industry has changed. For example, in journalism, a one-page resume was the standard throughout the 1980s and 1990s. At some point in the 2000s that changed, and multiple pages became not just appropriate, but expected for more senior-level people.In addition to making sure you have your resume copyedited and checked for other errors , its important to make sure its current. Talk to hiring managers or other people in your field who have recently gotten hired to find out whats the current norm.Very few people like surprises - at least when it comes to reference requests . Your references may all agree that youre a wonderful rolle and an excellent worker, but they probably dont want a surprise call asking about you.Let your references know that you plan to start a job search and that youre using them as references. This will have them expecting calls and give them a chance to opt out - maybe they will be traveling out of the country, or ma ybe they dont think they can say anything nice about you.Vacation policies vary by company. Some carry vacationover into the new year, and some pay you for unused time if you decide to leave, while others do neither.December is a popular month to take time off, and in some cases, even companies where unused time does not carry over will allow you to book January vacations using 2018 time. If you have unused days, see if you can use them early in 2019, which can give you time to search for a job and go on interviews.Consider the type of job youll be applying for and examine your skill set . Maybe theres something you know how to do that youre a little rusty at. Take an online refresher course or do something that lets you show during an interview that you worked on that area. Even just starting the process can make a big difference to prospective employers.While December can be a hectic month, it also tends to be a time when most workers in fields that arent retail-related get time off. Use that time both to prepare for your job search and to recharge your batteries .Do things like setting up emaille alerts for certain job titles and bookmarking company careers pages you want to track. Make sure you have interview outfits ready to go and that you have nicely printed copies of your resume and references. Theres only so much you can prepare, but doing what you can will make it easier once the job market picks back up in the new year.This article was originally published on The Motley Fool . It is reprinted with permission.