No matter what holiday(s) you may or may not be celebrating over the next 2 weeks, odds are you will have some time off of work to prepare for the New Year and a possible job change.  Even if you aren't planning to look for a new job, the holidays are a great time to do some professional development activities to stay ready to take advantage of any opportunities that may fall in your lap.

• Reboot your resume. If you haven't updated your resume in the past 90 days - now is the time. Add any end of year results you had, projects you completed, and committees you were participating in. Delete anything that isn't active (certifications, licenses, etc) anymore or isn't relevant to your current role or the type of job you may be searching for next.
• Spice up your social media. Don't make things up, but take the information from your updated resume and be sure to reflect that in your LinkedIn® profile. If you have a more current professional picture for your social media, upload that too.
• Dust off your interviewing materials. Check out your interview attire and take a trip to the dry cleaners if you need to. Get that padfolio out and jot down some basic questions to practice writing answers to with your updated resume. Print out information about key activities you have done in the past three months at work and in volunteering experiences.

Taking the time over the holidays for these steps will make it much less stressful when that perfect internal position or external opportunity comes your way in 2017!