(Photo Courtesy of D. Sharon Pruitt via stock.xchng.)

Finding a new job here in the final weeks of year is tough.

Companies just aren’t advancing their searches for open positions, said Brandon Smith, a career coach and workplace consultant who also teaches in the business schools at Emory and Georgia State universities.

“It’s not that companies aren’t spending time thinking about it. They’re having those conversations,” he said. “But everybody is taking vacations. You can’t get enough decision-makers in a room to interview somebody.”

That doesn’t mean job-seekers are stuck doing nothing until mid-January, though.

“The big, fundamental thing you can be doing is setting up meetings, informal coffee meetings, with people you want to network with to get into their company,” Smith said.

So how do you do that? And why is it so “fundamental,” as Smith said? He explains on this week’s Working on GPB Radio.

Click here ask Brandon a question about your job or career. We might answer you on the air.