The festive season can be a quiet time for many umbrella company contractors; companies close down for a long break, and in the case of IT contractors, most of the major banks have told them to take a mandatory two-week break.
What are you going to do with this long period away from work? Once the Christmas celebrations have ended, we’ve got a few spare days before thoughts turn to celebrating the arrival of the New Year.
Why not put some of the time to good use and review your skills and rehash your CV? The business world is constantly changing and the skills that were in high demand last year could well become the dinosaurs of 2012.
Employers tend to skin through CVs. In fact the average employer only spends 30 seconds reading a document it may have taken hours to compile. In fact, many large organisations have a scanning tool for CVs. If the skills they’re looking for don’t show up, all your hard work will end up filed under ‘B’ for bin.
So, at the same time as rewriting your CV, you may want to think about upgrading some of your skills. You can often get a large discount if you book a place on a training course at the last minute.
2012 is the Chinese year of the Dragon. The dragon signifies success and happiness, something we probably all wish for. According to Chinese astrology, people born in the Year of the Dragon are innovative and enterprising. In fact, the ideal characteristics for a successful contractor!
Put your enterprising brain to work over the festive break and hopefully a successful year will follow.
A very Merry Christmas to all contractors!
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Image: First Advent and first candle is lit by Per Ola Wiberg ~ Powi
