Rather than surprise everyone, I have decided to let everyone know that starting early January, my resume and cover letter services will be taking a small step up in price. I haven’t made a final decision yet on the specifics of the resume, cover letter and combination package, but I know that the price will be going up. When I first released the service, I had mentioned that the price was going to step up at some point in the near future, and have decided that the New Year shall be the start of the new price. It will not be a large jump, as I understand that funds are often tight for students and career switchers (my readers in general), but a small boost is essential. I was initially going to just raise the price, but I have decided to give all of you the heads up and about a week’s notice or so, before setting the new price into motion.

In addition to the price increase for the service, I will also offer a higher cost service that will allow purchasers to have their resumes/cover letters completed in an expedited fashion. In other words, if the normal queue is about 2-3 weekends at that time, the expedited purchaser will have their queue times dropped to about 1 weekend or so. Rather than buy this service, if you are interested, I would recommend that you first shoot me an email to find out what the queue time is for regular and expedited services as there will be down times when standard queue is roughly one weekend, and others when I am backed up with standard queue times at 3+ weekends, or expedited queue times of 2 weekends or so. Hopefully this doesn’t complicate the process much and will allow people that need the service done quicker for a resume drop deadline, to meet their deadline.

Also, bear in mind that the expedited queue time will not push everyone on the standard queue back. The times that I quote generally provide me with sufficient time to complete your resumes, so an expedited resume would be moved up, but not in front of someone who is already approaching their due date – in other words, I will not tell someone that their resume will be ready by next week and then back them up 3 weeks for an expedited purchaser – I probably don’t have to say it, but I don’t want anyone to worry that purchasing the regular service will yield a lesser product or be continuously delayed – my quoted times will still hold true and the quality will absolutely not diminish.

Now, getting beyond all of the product junk, let’s get into the meat of the article, a few quick notes for holiday readers:

1. Don’t reach out to your new contacts, make cold calls or inquire into potential opportunities during these two weeks (meaning before the week of Monday January 4th). Yes, it is definitely exciting to have opportunities, email addresses, etc, ready to go, but let them burn a hole in your pocket for a few more days. There are two reasons for this: 1) most people that are important to the decision making/interview processes are out of the office, and 2) those that are stuck in the office are definitely busy and are probably not in the best mood to deal with new people, cold calling, etc. If there is one thing worse than being forced to work over the holidays, it is getting networking or cold calls when all you are trying to do is finish up and get home. Wait for the New Year and, in my opinion, wait until about Tuesday or so of that week back to give your new contacts a bit of time to get back into the swing of things.

2. Although not the best time to reach out to new contacts, now is a great time to reach out to your current contacts and wish them a happy and safe holiday (as well as catch them up on a few quick things in your life). Even if you are afraid that the contact has gone a bit cold, this is the perfect avenue to reach back out and warm it up again. If you don’t get a response, who cares, you weren’t going to get one anyway. If you do, then even better, now the contact is back and fresh, and if you need anything in the near future, you can begin to massage it again. A quick happy holiday email is a great way to talk about your updates briefly, wish them a happy holiday, and then ask a few questions to keep the email going (not necessarily internship or opportunity questions, but rather questions on how things are going with them, the group, etc).

3. And finally, save the presents for your friends and family. I have been asked, quite a few times, whether it is acceptable to send high up bankers, senior professionals, etc small presents or the like (such as coffee mugs, a holiday basket or other trinkets) along with a resume and cover letter. Although this might sound like a good idea, I would keep this one on the shelf. You are much better off sending the holiday email, perhaps sending a personal hand-written card (if you really want to send something concrete to the office), or just waiting until after the holidays to try and get the networking phone call. Sending gifts often sends the wrong message and leaves a bad impression, if it even reaches the person you are trying to send it to in the first place. Stick to the phone calls and emails – leave the coffee mugs for your distant cousins.

That about covers it for this installment; stay tuned for upcoming articles on what to do when sensing layoffs, a day in the life, more reader questions and much more! I hope everyone has a very happy New Year and, of course, keep reading!