It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas (Break!)

Written on 1:13 PM by Xavier Career Development

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” Is it really? When the month of December rolls around for Xavier students, many of us will have had a small taste of home over Thanksgiving break, and then return back to campus to crank out the last few weeks of work and tremendous amounts of studying for final exams. We can have a tendency to only focus on what is in front of us, and not what lies ahead! Keep your eyes on the prize, Xavier students: Christmas break is not that far away!

Christmas break is definitely the time for enjoying, in my opinion at least, the most wonderful time of the year. Family, friends, and food are sources for a fantastic three weeks away from textbooks, meetings, and emails. It is incredibly easy to spend 3 weeks wearing sweatpants as a result of the massive amount of food you have eaten, lying on the couch both starting (and then subsequently finishing) a Netflix series of your choice knowing you have nothing holding you back. Although this may be the dream for a lot of us, I have faith in you, fellow students. We are more than capable of accomplishing some career-related goals and mindsets while we have time to kick back! Let’s take this slowly, this is a vacation after all, right? By no means am I suggesting we all need to spend our breaks researching internships and jobs, interviewing for them, and finally landing those positions.

Let’s say we are spending the day at home, checking Facebook albums, updating our iTunes, and doing some online shopping looking for that perfect New Year’s Eve outfit. While we are on our laptops, we can write or edit our resumes. After having done so, we can head over to LinkedIn.com to update our profiles after having browsed so many of our friends’ profiles on various social media accounts. Perhaps we have some information to add from a fall internship we have landed, or update our objective statements for what it is we are seeking in the spring and summer. After having updated our LinkedIn accounts, we can navigate over to eRecruiting to research those possible winter, spring, or possible summer internship and job positions we are seeking!

By now we’ve spent a lot of time hunched over our computers, and should get outside and enjoy the snow and winter weather! Suggest to mom and/or dad a day of bonding! Sit down with them to explain what it is you really are searching for or hope to accomplish in terms of your career path: whether you are graduating in the spring and want to discuss living situations and the location of your dream job, or you are a sophomore and seeking advice on declaring a major. Those older than us always give us wise advice about their career history when it is sought out! While you are out you can also suggest shopping for business/interview attire! What family member wouldn’t want to help you present yourself as professionally as possible, especially when you mention the Spring Career Fair is right around the corner on February 17!

Vacation is the best of both worlds: allowing for productivity as well as good times with those we love. Make the most of your break this year!

Merry Christmas Muskies,
Jenny Mendoza