The holidays can be a great time to network for your next job

• Job seekers can use the holiday season to network and reconnect with contacts.
• Holiday messages offer a natural way to reach recruiters and hiring managers during slow periods.
• Networking at holiday parties can help job seekers practice and build connections for the new year.

If you're looking for a job, the holidays can feel like a dead zone blanketed by out-of-office replies.

Yet that hush can bring opportunity: Instead of putting your professional aspirations on hold till January, the holiday slowdown can be a great time for networking, job-market observers told Business Insider.

One reason is that wishing someone a happy holiday is a great excuse to send an email, text, LinkedIn message, or a card — virtual or physical. You can use it as a chance to signal that you'd like to connect with them in the new year, said Amanda Augustine, a career expert at TopResume.

"It's a very natural, very organic way to start setting up some calls or some actual face-to-face," she said.

Plant the seeds for the new year

With fewer meetings and lighter workloads in many fields, a holiday message might land differently. It's possible job seekers might reach a recruiter or hiring manager who's less rushed and perhaps in a more generous frame of mind.

Augustine said that's why it's often a good time to contact people, wish them the best for the year ahead, and — depending on how well you know them — suggest it would be great to grab lunch, catch up over a drink, or find 15 minutes for a call after the holidays.

She said that a client of hers once made a list of the recruiters she'd had a more than cursory conversation with over the prior year and sent holiday wishes via email. She added a brief update on what she'd been up to since they last spoke, and that she was still targeting a certain type of role. The woman ended with the request that the recruiter keep her in mind if anything popped up in the new year that was a fit.

"It was a very non-pushy way of just getting back on the radar of some employers and recruiters that she had really good rapport with," she said.

Keep it brief

One key part of the delivery: brevity. Augustine said the client wasn't dedicating "paragraphs and paragraphs" to recounting her life story.

Augustine suggested starting the message by wishing the person and their loved ones a wonderful holiday season and a happy New Year. Then shift to something like, "I can't believe it's been X months since the last time we spoke."

From there, Augustine said it's OK to give a short update: "I've been working on this upskilling course while pursuing roles in this area." Then, close by asking that the person contact you if they come across a role that could be a good fit. You might end with a final holiday wish, she said.

This approach, Augustine said, can make it easier to contact the person in January. "It's not like 'Who in the world is this individual?' They reached out to me just a month ago," she said.

Of course, there's always a chance that while you're trying to network over the holidays, the people you're trying to reach are logged off. The message you send could be lost in the end-of-year digital flurry, said Peter Duris, CEO of Kickresume, a career tool that uses AI.

At the same time, he said, if it lands in the right place and at the right time, it can plant an important seed for the year to come. That's important, Duris said, because there can be stepped-up competition among job seekers in a new year.

The holiday message can also show that a job seeker is interested and motivated, he said. Duris said he recently interviewed a candidate who didn't shy from a call even though it was close to Christmas. It showed the person was a hard worker, he said.

"That's definitely a bonus point," Duris said.

Practice at a holiday party

While many recruiters say that networking can make all the difference when applying to jobs, it's not always easy to do because it can feel awkward. Augustine said that holiday parties offer a great chance to polish your networking skills — and plenty of people to connect with.

It can serve as an informal way to practice how to talk about what you're doing, what you're passionate about, and what you're looking for on the horizon, Augustine said.

"This is where you can start flexing your networking muscles without feeling as though you are at an official networking event," she said.

Do you have a story to share about your career? Contact this reporter at tparadis@businessinsider.com.