December is a great time for your career

December is a great time for your career I know youre thinking that the workplace is dead between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but actually, December is a great time for careers. Here are five reasons why: 1. Job hunting is great in December. January is the biggest month for hiring, but December is the second-best month for a job hunt. This is because people have budget allocated for jobs on a yearly basis. And if they dont fill those jobs, they lose the position in the new budget. So all those hard-to-fill positions have to get filled no matter what this month. Also, people have money they did not spend in other areas that they can put toward a new hire. But they dont know if they have that money until the end of the year. This all makes for a hiring frenzy in December, and since most candidates dont realize this, the candidate pool is not as full in December either. 2. The path to a promotion is shortest in December. Its true that everyone who has lots of power at your company is gone by the middle of December. And its true that you will spend a lot of time wishing you did not have to work in December. But there are plenty perks from being at the office in December. And one of them is that if anything important flies through the door, the person who usually handles important stuff will be gone. This is an opportunity for you to step up. Keep an eye out for something big. Something too big for the people who are left in the office. And thats when you should volunteer to work late. Take on that job. Youll look like a great team player, and youll get great experience to boot. 3. Jewish solidarity feels strongest in December. In general, the Jews lay low. We dont like to draw attention to ourselves at work. And we dont like to bug people about being Jewish. We dont want you to become Jewish. We just want you to leave us alone when we need to do things like take off seven, random days in October for a slew of Jewish holidays that are not nearly as well marketed as Chanukah. This doesnt mean, though, that we are not annoyed with all the Christmas stuff. We are annoyed when you say Happy Holidays because we know it means Merry Christmas to those of you who dont celebrate it. In fact, we are annoyed by a lot in December. And it makes being Jewish feel a little bit better, in a Woody Allen kind of way. 4. Everyone has their kids home. I spend most of my days going nuts trying to do homeschooling and work at the same time. Its pretty safe to say that my career has taken a hit and that I am going nuts trying to figure out how to do both. So Im really looking forward to the two weeks that everyone has their kids out of school. Those two weeks Ill look like the queen of managing parenting and work while everyone else is more discombobulated than I am because they only do this two weeks out of the year. 5. Hookups! It turns out that 40% of people have had hookups at holiday parties, according to Ruth Houston, an infidelity expert. And Trojan reports that most men are willing to have sex with someone they meet at the holiday party. (But then I wonder if Trojan ever did a poll to find out when men arent willing to have sex with someone they meet?) I told this to my brother and he pointed out that most people have been to ten holiday parties by the time they are thirty. So he thinks people are underreporting their hookups. Whatever the true number, heres some advice. Men: women who earn more money are accustomed to receiving more oral sex. So choose your target with your own capabilities in mind. Women: If you are not the same age as the guy then let him make the first move. Statistically, the match is more likely to stick if you follow that advice. And heres some more advice about how to get the guy you work with.