Last year Christmas came with less comfort and joy, more panic and dread. It seemed like all of our clients had forgotten we existed, or had been so drunk at their holiday parties that they still hadn’t recovered from their hangovers. It looked like our New Year would be wrought with new debt and old bills. Of course, we were lucky enough that things picked up a few weeks after the ball dropped, but it hadn’t seemed like anything more than a stroke of luck, that a handful of individuals and companies had been inspired by the "season of giving" and made a resolution to do more charitable work, thereby hiring us to write for them. This year, too, there’s been a sudden and significant drop-off, which led me to wonder if it had just been our luck or if the holidays really lead to a hiring malaise. Turns out, December is reported to be a fantastic month to look for a job, even in this economy.

Though this positive prediction applies more to the unemployed searching for a gig, versus those of use who are freelance and struggling to detect new clients amidst the holiday hustle and bustle, I’m going to get into the spirit and share why this time of year is better for the jobless. For one thing, there are more job openings in light of new budgets that often come to fruition in January. Any human resources department will have gotten the requisitions for any new jobs last month, but they’ll need to be filled by the first of the year, which leaves these precious few weeks as prime hiring time for a lot of companies. Moreover, most hungry job hunters figure that this is the time to lay low. After all, between the seasonal help clotting the counters of many stores, and the blogged-about tales of booze-fueled parties where so-and-so hooked up with their coworker in the coat closet, well, it’s easy to assume that the holidays are more a time to be grateful for being gainfully unemployed than to be out ringing the bell for job salvation. But there’s less competition as everyone just stands on the twinkle-light lined sidelines.

If you’re living in mom’s basement, waiting for a call from one of the gazillions of companies that received your CV, get off your Santa-sized ass and pretend to be merry. Send tasteful, discreet holiday cards to hiring managers, especially to those who didn’t hire you. One of the reasons behind this tidbit that I discovered is that most new hires who get fired are terminated within the first ninety days (don’t think they didn’t steal a fair number of Post-It pads, though.) There’s a chance that the hiring manager who encounters your seasonal salutation will remember your awesome resume and personable interview and call you back in. Granted, I read this on a website. The only message I’d like to send to HR managers who didn’t give me a call back is "I hope your company fails miserably and publicly," which isn’t exactly imbued with Christmas cheer. But if articles by people who get paid to write about getting hired in the corporate world say to do this, I will regurgitate the information. Hopefully somebody who reads this blog will address a card with a fat guy and some airborne ruminant animals on it to a the human resources department that snubbed them, then get hired and keep Ministry of Imagery in mind if their company ever needs some copywriting work.

Another idea posted in smarter sites than this one is to work the corporate holiday party circuit. If you have friends who are employed (and not complaining incessantly about their job, or about to get fired) who have holiday parties coming up, ask if you can attend as a date. When you’re there, introduce yourself and have your card ready to hand out. Networking is always helpful, whether you’re out of a job or an ever-hustling freelancer, and December is a month filled with opportunities to get to know people. Just don’t go home with them. Or maybe you should. I’ve heard that hiring managers are total freaks in the sack.

Again, I’m not a card-pusher. I don’t even own business cards. I find them sleazy and ridiculous, and I associate them more with men who use excessive hairgel than with actual opportunities. I would think that someone who gave me a business card at a holiday party probably didn’t get out much or had been raised by soulless corporate drones. But I make very little money and have a lot of trouble finding clients, so do what I don’t and watch the offers roll right in.

Keep in mind that January is usually glutted with competition, since everyone who made some sort of New Year’s resolution to switch jobs starts looking, and all those fellow job hunters who hung back for the holidays return full-force, with their resolve fortified by weeks of newly accrued debt, egg-nog hangovers, and having to watch their siblings’ success lauded by every member of their family. I’d advise that it’s better to build momentum and keep actively searching during this month, after all, it helps you to feel productive as the rest of the world guzzles hot cocoa and wrestles with gift wrap.

There’s also the theory that December is the month to remember when pushing your resume around in the ether because a lot of those higher-ups are feeling more relaxed and have more time on their hands as things wind down towards the holiday break. That and the fact that they’re having post-open-bar one-night-stands.

This is also the month that many companies go over their staffing strategies and budget cuts. Meaning that the possibility of money that’s left in that new budget can be spent on new hires before the end of the year. Some of the industries that are looking to start a new-hire fire during the cold weather months are retail, finance-related companies, and airlines. Even if you’re able to score a late seasonal gig, do it. It isn’t unheard of for seasonal hires to become permanent fixtures at a job. Specific companies rumored to be hiring include Adidas, Bridgestone, and Century 21 department stores. As a heads-up to those of you who are in other industries: Accounting offices that handle tax returns and the like hire between February and March, as well as in late summer for the extended deadlines. Teachers, substitutes, and those who work in education should get their resumes ready for the months of March, November, and September, though there’s some hiring done in December, too, mainly in colleges. Hospitals start recruiting in January and May due to new nursing school graduates infecting the public. If you’re a hippie-dippie outdoorsman or lady, landscaping companies begin hiring in March and continue through the summer. And those of you who are personal trainers, summer is your season, but there’s a post-holiday rush induced by one too many cookies, too.

Of course, if you’re looking to get hired, you should always be thinking ahead. Think like a hiring manager, and then try to get into the mindset of your field. What has this past year meant for what you do? (Don’t cringe too much.) And then think about what the possible outcome of the next quarter will be.

Of course I found the flip-side to the sunshine-and-puppies aspect of December hiring. Fewer jobs are posted, due to the schedule. This year is unlike any other when it comes to budgets, projected numbers, and pitching new projects, so outlooks can be grim. Interviews take longer, many companies have installed near-permanent hiring freezes, very few new projects are being given the go-ahead because of budget woes, fear, and the fact that, hell, it’s the holidays, who wants to do anything other than eat, drink, and get some? But I’m not going to completely bah humbug the idea that this month might not be a complete waste of time when it comes to going out and getting a new gig. Though I still believe that scoring a new client before the New Year is about as likely as Santa landing on the roof of my empty house, it pays to keep plugging along on the job hunt front, even if your previous attempts have been scrooged. Looks like the humbug’s on us.