Aggressively pursuing your job search during the holidays CAN pay off, as my own personal results and research can attest.

Three weeks ago I wrote that recruiting and placement experts all encourage job seekers to continue their efforts into and through the holidays. I noted that I would be ramping up some specific elements of my own search during the holidays. Based on my experience looking for a new job during the holidays and that of my friends and contacts who are also seeking new jobs, the experts appear to be correct.

Prior to Thanksgiving, I averaged 2.4 interviews per week, 57% of which were phone interviews and 43% were face-to-face. My best week was in mid-November, when I had seven interviews during one week.

Since the week of Thanksgiving, the average number of interviews I do each week has increased to 3.6, with the majority now face-to-face. With four more interviews already scheduled for this week and another three in process, my averages could increase even higher. Two firms have indicated their desire to make a decision before year-end, and two others have indicated a decision "very soon," which further supports the experts I quoted three weeks ago.

While my interview "hit rate" appears to be consistently higher than other job seekers I know (presumably due to my job search project plan methodology), my fellow job seekers who are aggressively pursuing their searches through the holidays are also landing more interviews during these weeks than they did prior to the holidays.

David Krull, the fellow job seeker I referred to in my first Holiday Job Search article, notes that he is averaging 2.8 interviews each week during the holidays, compared with 1.3 interviews per week before the holidays.

David and I are also both employing unique holiday-specific tactics to increase our exposure to hiring decision makers and executive recruiters.

For example, I am sending out holiday cards to a number of executive recruiters with a brief note reminding them of my interest in their clients. Meanwhile, David, who is a networker extraordinaire, is attending several events each week during the holidays. In addition to founding several networking groups in Chicago, David uses LinkedIn and his personal contacts to identify additional live networking opportunities to attend. He says that these networking events have increased during the holidays, and that he has a number of new interviews and other opportunities just about to come to fruition from his increased attendance.

Time will tell if and how our additional efforts will play out for us. But with these statistically significant improvements in our results as positive feedback, we are well placed ahead of other job seekers for January's new hire surge.

I am very interested to hear how many other executive job seekers decided to kick their job search into high gear during the holidays and what you did to stand out.

Happy Holidays!!!

Mark