4 Tips for Finding a Holiday Job

Are you in the market for a part-time job for the upcoming holiday season? Well, you’re in luck.

According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, between half a million and 600,000 part-time, temporary workers will be hired for this years holiday season. In order to make sure you’re among those hired, follow these four tips:

:: Be open and flexible. If you want to maximize your attractiveness to potential employers, be open to a variety of shifts and schedules. Holiday staff are needed to fill in on top of the regular shifts of full-time employees. That means you may be needed to work evenings one week and weekends the next. 9-5 jobs from Monday through Friday are much rarer in the holiday work world. If there are times that you are absolutely unable to work, but clear and upfront about those from the beginning.

:: Have realistic expectations. Most holiday seasonal work is in retail or food service establishments and most of these jobs pay minimum wage or a little bit more. Plus, the majority of employers are looking for part-time temporary workers, not full-time, so the earning potential is limited. That said, you can always double up and work for more than one place. Just make sure you can work out the scheduling to everyone’s betterment.

:: Think outside the box. Just because most seasonal work around the winters holidays is at the mall doesn’t mean that all of it is. If you would rather avoid retail, you might want to consider working from home. Yes, indeed, there are work from home jobs for the holiday season. One of the most common is customer service call agents. Internet and phone-based orders, as well as complaints and questions, increase significantly during the holiday season. According to Good Morning America, more than 10,000 agents will be hired for the holiday season to handle question, process orders and other duties.

:: Start looking now. The “season” may not start until December, but most employers are well into the planning phase of their holiday roll-out. Many start their advertising and interview process now, and by Thanksgiving, they have already hired and trained all their temporary staffers. In other words, start now or you will miss the boat!

For more hints and tips on finding a job during the holidays and beyond, check out this post with 5 tips for job hunting during the holiday season.