10 Ways Holiday Parties Can Help Your Job SearchOr Hurt It

10 Ways Holiday Parties Can Help Your Job Searchâ€"Or Hurt It 10 Ways Holiday Parties Can Help Your Job Search- Or Hurt It They’re heeeere. All those invites to holiday parties. Work parties. Neighbor parties. Family parties. Friend parties. So many parties. And while it might be tempting to sit them out, or go only for the food and festivities (reason enough!), there are a few compelling reasons why going to holiday parties can help your job search- or hurt it if you’re not careful. Here are five ways holiday parties can help your job search: 1. They can help you practice your conversational skills. Even if you don’t go into every conversation with an agenda to advance your job search prospects, every single person you speak with is a chance to practice and improve upon your conversation skills. Get used to asking a lot of questions, using active listening techniques, and remembering people’s names. 2. They can offer an opportunity for you to ask questions and learn something new. Even if you’re at a party where no one works in an industry or job you’d actually want, you can ask general questions that will help your job search. Spark some ideas for your own job search by asking things like: How did you find your last job? What are the strangest job interview questions you’ve been asked? Have you ever hired someone? What makes a person stand out to you? 3. They are a great opportunity to meet new people and network, network, network. If you’re in the middle of a job search, you’ve probably heard a million times that networking is the cornerstone of success. And that’s because it’s true. But holiday parties provide a unique time to network without all the schmoozy, awkward conversations. Everyone is in a festive mood, so turn your networking into a bit of fun by striking up conversations with people you wouldn’t normally talk to. Don’t think of it as networking, so much as spreading holiday cheer. After each party, within a day or two at the most, connect with the people you met on LinkedIn. As the holidays fly by, it won’t be easy to remember all the new people you’ve met, but LinkedIn is a great way to keep track of them. Be sure to personalize the generic message requesting them to connect with you. Include where you met them and your interest in whatever you chatted about. 4. They can be a great place to set up future coffee meetings or informational interviews. The holidays are a great excuse to reconnect with former colleagues and mentors, or to connect with new people. When you run into old contacts at holiday parties, or make new ones, be sure to invite them to coffee the following week. Or, if you meet people whose jobs or companies are of particular interest to you, ask them if they’d be game to do an informational interview with you. If you run into any past colleagues with whom you worked well, ask if they’ll be a professional reference for you. The holidays bring out people’s generosity, which is great for your job search. 5. You can use the party to make a great first impression on future potential managers or colleagues. Make sure you bring your best self to these holiday parties, because you never know who youll meet, and how they might play a part in your career in the future! Act and dress in a professional way, and limit your alcohol consumption. And make a (positive) lasting impression on everyone you meet! While the above can all be very beneficial to your search, there are also a number of ways a holiday party could actually hurt your job search, so be sure to steer clear of these “oops” moments. Here are five ways your behavior at holiday parties can hurt your job search. 1. You talk about yourself too much. It happens a lot- you’re nervous, you’re not sure what to say, and you end up talking about yourself rather than asking people about themselves. Practice asking questions before you go to any holiday parties so you’ll have a mental list to pull from when you’re particularly nervous. Or engage in group conversations where you’re less likely to feel pressured, and you can listen to other people’s questions and answers. 2. You run into a former employer or manager with whom you didnt have a great relationship. Like an old boyfriend, we all have a former employer that gets our blood boiling. But a holiday party is not the time to take your former employer or manager to task. If you want to vent a little bit in friendly conversation, refrain from using specific company names or the names of managers and colleagues with whom you didn’t get along. 3. You spend the whole time complaining. When a job search runs through the holiday season, you can feel doubly stressed. Holiday parties, however, are not the place bring up your financial troubles or your flailing search for a new job. Keep your conversations light and positive, no matter how difficult that seems. 4. You ask people for a job. Even if this were an actual networking event, its never appropriate to explicitly ask someone for a job. Doing so can make you come off as an entitled, unprofessional, or worse, desperate person. Its fine to strike up conversations with people who might be able to help you out in the future (of course, thats once youve established a mutually beneficial relationship), but this isnt the time to put anyone in an uncomfortable spot by asking for a job or help getting one. 5. You get drunk. No article about networking at holiday parties would be complete without this note: don’t get drunk! The thing is, we don’t actually think that most people who become “the drunk guy” at a holiday party actually plan to be that person. The nerves, the awkward conversations, the festivities, the lights- it’s a perfect situation to drink more than you realize. If you’re going to drink, alternate your glass of wine with a glass of water, or challenge yourself to see how long you can nurse one cup.