I have always felt sympathy for the kids I’ve taught who graduated in December. Somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks, they’re pumping out resumes and cover letters to hiring folks that are trying to keep their year-end budgets in check while planning office holiday parties and trying to do their own holiday stuff.

Even more, in Wisconsin, December is a dismal, cold and gray month that gives people that feeling of misery and provides seasonal affective disorder with a home-field advantage. Nothing like getting rejection letters when you’re also feeling like the world itself is curling up into a corner and dying on you.

One great resource to help those of you trying to find a job during this “unprecedented” time of pandemic, hiring freezes and general misery is Andrew Seaman over at LinkedIn.

Seaman, who serves as senior editor in the job search and career area for this LinkedIn News, spent time as a journalist at Reuters and USA-Today. He was also the chairman of the Society for Professional Journalists’ ethics committee for four years, during which time he helped rework the organization’s ethical code.

(As a minor side-plug, he was also nice enough to be one of the “Pros” for the “Dynamics of News Reporting and Writing” book in the “Thoughts from a Pro” feature.)

Seaman has covered many topics over the past few years that are associated with high-wire act we must endure to find a job. His “Get Hired” newsletter has more than a half-million weekly subscribers and always offers interesting angles on important topics. These are archived on the LinkedIn site as well, just in case you missed one of his posts.

Here are a few I would recommend right off the bat:

• Finding motivation during a job search
• How to fight job searching fatigue
• How to advocate for yourself as a job-seeker
• How to fight off feeling like a fraud during your job search

He’s also got great advice for how to turn down a job, what kind of digging you should do to learn about a company that’s offering a job and how to network well.

The things that make Seaman’s work great come from his background as a journalist:

• He relies on sources. You can find actual people with actual quotes who actually did things he’s talking about or deal with them in some way. He’s not giving you a “Based on how important I think I am, here are some pontifications” kind of thing. It’s real.
• His work is clearly written. The journalism end comes through in this because he’s not using industry jargon (or if he is, he defines it) or a load of random lingo. He’s also writing in a concise and smooth way that makes his writing a joy to read.
• He understands the audience-centricity principle. Seaman knows who is reading his work and he understands what they want out of him. His work is timely and topical. It makes sense to people who are looking for a job. He doesn’t go off on flights of fancy. It’s just damn good stuff.

Hope you enjoy his stuff and good luck with your job search!