Dear Editor:

I am not going to tell you my age, but suffice it to say that I am old enough to be transitioning out of the military and into the civilian job market. My buddies tell me that there is no hope in jingle bells that I will land a job during the month of December. Please tell me the truth. Is there hope for me?

Signed, CPT Hopeless Lee Hopeful, Jobseeker at Large

Dear Hopeless,

Your little buddies are wrong. They are jaded by 24/7/365 news reports heralding, not the coming of Santa Claus, but the rising unemployment rate and the general demise of the economy. They only believe what they hear and they are gainfully employed so they don’t really care about you anyway.

Yes, Hopeless, there is hope but only if you act wisely through this festive month, keeping in mind your ultimate goal of a successful career transition. Do not push your job search efforts aside for a stolen kiss under a branch of mistletoe, a taste of home-baked honey ham or a lazy afternoon with like-minded friends, a well-stocked refrigerator and ESPN.

Not have hope in the season that is based on the very concept itself! Perish the thought, dear job seeker. You might as well not believe in the power of networking, the one true thing that you can and should do during this blessed holiday season given the many, many opportunities to do so.

You can do a number of tasks in your job search to land your next job, but in the simple act of networking you will succeed. Is there hope? Ah, dear seeker, the answer is a resounding yes! Alas, you must be willing to network in earnest and in doing so, you will realize your dreams of employment.

Embrace the boisterous camaraderie of merry makers at all those office potluck lunches and evening venues, formal and otherwise. Remember to enlighten your colleagues and their friends (and friends of their friends) about your impending transition. Regale them with your many qualifications and shining accomplishments but do so without treading into dangerous buzz kill territory.

Send those heart-felt and timely holiday greetings by snail mail or e-mail. Reach out and reconnect with those who may be able to point you to a job lead, a decision maker or an opportunity not yet advertised to the general public. Build and solidify those relationships that could prove instrumental in your career quest.

Listen intently and communicate effectively. Don’t just take from your contacts or dominate their valuable time with idle words of oh so wonderful you. Give back thoughtfully to the exchange, truly listening to their words and offering up your own ideas, suggestions and commentary. In giving, you shall receive. The balance of the universe says so.

Diligently review your Facebook profile, Twitter accounts, blogs and personal website and revise them if necessary. Keep your online you appealing to potential employers and banish the ghosts of your potentially sordid past lest they haunt your future in a perverse Charles Dickens kind of way.

No hope! Rest easy, gentle warrior. There most certainly is hope for you during this holiday season. A thousand years from now, nay, even beyond ten times a thousand years from now, savvy job seekers like yourself, will continue to network through the season’s alternately twinkling lights, musically inclined festive flash mobs and long, long, long lines everywhere.

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Janet Farley is the author of the Quick Military Transition Guide: Seven Steps to Landing a Civilian Job (Jist Inc, 2012). She writes the JobTalk column for the Stars and Stripes newspapers.