subject: Employment Opportunities During the Holidays [print this page] A tremendous amount of money changes hands during the holiday season. Take the opportunity to not only save money but also potentially make money.
For example, Black Friday is a great day for retailers. It is the first day of the year that most retailers start making money for the year. Also the thirty-day period between Halloween and Thanksgiving normally is not a sale period but times have changed and changed radically.
The bad news for the economy is that 240, 000 jobs were lost in October of 2008. However there is an up tick in part time work, which oddly enough creates opportunity even during trying times such as these.
Tips to Land a Part Time Job
Go to your favorite store or mall.
Identify which industries need help during the holidays or busy times.
Practice interviewing. Ask friends and family to role play interviews with you so you can be comfortable and confident when you walk into the hiring managers office.
Be well dressed, groomed, neat, and appropriate to the business or position you are interviewing for.
Show willingness to work on holidays assome people will not work weekendsand odd hours. Discuss your willingness to work on Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years Day, etc. Offer to work thethe latershifts such as 4pm 12am or an early shift. Plan on being flexible and communicating that flexibility to the hiring manager.
Be clear about your skills and your knowledge of gadgets, cooking, art, photography, etc.
Be persistent. If you get a no at first, don't despair and be sure to follow up with a thank you note for the interview. Don't be a stalker but stay in contact at least once a week or every couple of weeks. You never know when an emergency comes up. For example as a teenager working at McDonalds I would work my shift and whenever I had extra time just show up during another shift cycle on time. Guess what? I almost invariably would pick up extra work because they either thought it was my shiftor some other teenager invariably didn't bother to show up or even call in sick. In this case I was both persistent and flexible even after getting the job.
Compare prices. Be smart and frugal. Go tohttp://www.pricegrabber.com/ to look at all the factors for online shopping and give you the true best deal. By shopping online, you can often get price breaks and specials that are not offered in the stores.
If there is a particularly expensive gift that you would like to purchase and you are quite certain that prices and availability will be better after the Christmas holiday, consider giving the recipient a card with a sweet note in it explaining what their gift will be and when it will arrive.After the holiday season prices are bound to go down even further. This is no time to be foolish and get caught up in excess spending and "keep up with the Jones" type thinking. Don't forget the Jones' are probably broke anyway.
Make a list and stick with it. List the items you have researched or are on sale and do not buy items off the list on impulse as it could double or triple your spending while you are in the store. My sweetheart and I discussed our holiday budget and activities. We came up with a list of activities and items we would like and now we have choices for each other and spending parameters.
Remember Christmas is about the birth of Jesus Christ, love, and giving not conspicuous consumption. Spend time and energy with people, or get involved in activities that don't cost money, because seeing an aging relative isn't about money. Delivering meals to the homebound isn't about money. Spending time with family engaged in healthy activities isn't about money. Helping with activities for orphaned or disadvantaged children isn't about money.
Put some meaning back in the holidays and take these troubling times as a signal to make healthy enjoyable lifestyle changes.
