How to Find a Job Opportunity during the COVID-19 Pandemic

How to Find a Job Opportunity during the COVID-19 Pandemic How to Find a Job Opportunity during the COVID-19 Pandemic8 min read Read ­ing Time: 7 min ­utesLife has always been uncer ­tain. And with this uncer ­tain ­ty, the world entered 2020 sur ­round ­ed by a pan ­dem ­ic. COVID-19 has changed every ­thing around the globe, where noth ­ing is nor ­mal any ­more. Com ­pa ­nies all over the world have stopped work ­ing from their premis ­es, in order to ensure safe ­ty. Since the world has come to a halt alto ­geth ­er, the econ ­o ­my is also plum ­met ­ing. Sur ­round ­ed by this tur ­moil from all sides, what can a job seek ­er do? From fresh ­ers who were recent ­ly sup ­posed to grad ­u ­ate to expe ­ri ­enced employ ­ees who were look ­ing for a job change; every ­one is in a state of con ­fu ­sion. Where to look, what to look for, and how to look? So many ques ­tions, yet no answer because the coro ­n ­avirus does not seem to stop spread ­ing. But the fact is, since we do not know when will this tur ­moil come to an end, we can ­not sit back for so long. The uncer ­tain ­ty needs to be dealt with. From employ ­ers, employ ­ees to job seek ­ers, every ­one is affect ­ed. There ­fore, it is true that the hir ­ing process has slowed down in the past few months. But a slow process does not mean that there is an absence of func ­tion ­ing. Rather, we are at a stage where if you stop search ­ing, you might lose the oppor ­tu ­ni ­ty to anoth ­er can ­di ­date in no time. What Should A Job Seeker Do In This Time of Unrest? Should a job seek ­er sit back and wait for things to get nor ­mal? No, that is cer ­tain ­ly not an option because we do not know when we will reach back to the stage of nor ­mal. Should the job seek ­er just give up on find ­ing the job? Time is pre ­cious, and you can ­not let it go to waste. It is time to under ­stand what is chang ­ing and move ahead with the change. Find oppor ­tu ­ni ­ties and work accord ­ing ­ly to suc ­ceed. 1. Strengthen Your Resume A resume speaks about you on your behalf. So you need to write a fine ­ly pol ­ished resume, which is both bot friend ­ly as well as recruiter friend ­ly. Now that you have the time, invest it in refin ­ing both the sci ­ence as well as the art of mak ­ing a per ­fect resume. A pro ­fes ­sion ­al resume must have the friend ­ly key ­words which are rec ­og ­nized by the bot, so that your resume is paid atten ­tion to. Also remem ­ber to make a resume as spe ­cif ­ic as pos ­si ­ble to the job posi ­tion that you apply for. For that, each job that you apply for should have a sep ­a ­rate resume. This time is more than impor ­tant to have a resume which makes you stand out from the crowd in the job mar ­ket. You can cre ­ate a per ­fect resume with the assis ­tance of Kick ­re ­sume or Resume Genius. Keep up with the mar ­ket trends as times have changed. Com ­pa ­nies are all work ­ing in dif ­fer ­ent ways now, so tight ­en up your resume accord ­ing ­ly. 2. Prepare For Virtual Interview Since the whole world is prac ­tic ­ing social dis ­tanc ­ing, face-to-face inter ­views will not be held any time soon. So it is impor ­tant that all the job seek ­ers pre ­pare them ­selves for vir ­tu ­al inter ­view ­ing. Whether it be a phone call inter ­view, a video call inter ­view, you should be pre ­pared to give your best. Pre ­pare a decent and silent place in advance where you can give the inter ­view from. Prac ­tice your tone of talk ­ing so that you do not sound too com ­fort ­able and leaned back in the inter ­view. Down ­load the nec ­es ­sary pro ­grams for inter ­view calls and always dress for the inter ­view, even when you are attend ­ing it from your home. To learn more about how to pre ­pare for a vir ­tu ­al inter ­view at Ful ­lyprepped. Have a copy of your resume ready in front of you. An advan ­tage that you have in a vir ­tu ­al inter ­view is that you can pre ­pare a cheat sheet where you can write point ­ers about how your skills and require ­ments can be per ­fect ­ly in-line with the job require ­ment. 3. Focus On Enhancing Your Skills While you search for a job in these hard times, revamp your pro ­file to prove out to be bet ­ter than ever. Keep enhanc ­ing not just your resume, but also the cov ­er let ­ter and your social media pro ­files. Clar ­i ­fy on your social pro ­files, like that on LinkedIn, about what is your spe ­cial ­ty. State what you are best at and what more you can offer to a new job and the com ­pa ­ny. The advan ­tage of revamp ­ing your LinkedIn pro ­file is that your net ­works will be noti ­fied. This will open gates for these net ­works to pass along any oppor ­tu ­ni ­ties that they might have for you. You can take online class ­es at Ude ­my or Cours ­era. An employ ­ee is hired and paid for their skills. So now when you have time, learn more skills and keep updat ­ing them in your pro ­file. The more skilled you are, the bet ­ter offers you can get. If you are look ­ing for ­ward to apply ­ing to a job but do not have a cer ­tain skill-set which is a require ­ment in the job descrip ­tion, learn it now. Here is a list of 30 Most Lucra ­tive Skills You Can Learn Online. 4. Follow Up Consistently If you have applied for a job, as a can ­di ­date you can keep fol ­low ­ing up fre ­quent ­ly about what would be the next step in the inter ­view process. Fol ­low up per ­sis ­tent ­ly but also be polite. Always fol ­low up through emails. Take con ­trol of what is in your con ­trol. Do not antic ­i ­pate unnec ­es ­sar ­i ­ly. Send in a thank you email and make them aware of the fact that you shall be wait ­ing for a revert. You can watch this video by Lin ­da Raynier to have guide ­lines about how to fol ­low up after a job inter ­view. 5. Accept Short-Term Opportunities The virus is not a for ­ev ­er phe ­nom ­e ­non. But nobody yet knows for how long is going to stay. So for the time being, think about short-term plans as well. The econ ­o ­my is trick ­ling-down and com ­pa ­nies are lay ­ing off work ­ers. There ­fore, it is not nec ­es ­sary that you should only be open to long-term oppor ­tu ­ni ­ties only. If you do not find some ­thing for long-term, open your ­self to short term oppor ­tu ­ni ­ties. You are sure to learn some ­thing and add to your skills. Look for jobs in indus ­tries which are in demand more than ever dur ­ing this pan ­dem ­ic. For instance, Ama ­zon is hir ­ing a great num ­ber of employ ­ees. Pep ­si ­co, Zoom, Blue Apron are also few of the many com ­pa ­nies which are on a hir ­ing spree due to an increase in demand. Keep your noti ­fi ­ca ­tion set ­tings open to any kind of job titles you think you might be inter ­est ­ed in. Check email alerts fre ­quent ­ly to find out any job alerts which have list ­ed open ­ings that match your saved jobs. Con ­sid ­er home-based jobs for the time being if you find an oppor ­tu ­ni ­ty for the same. It is not about for ­ev ­er. It is just about right now. Explore the jobs that you may have ignored in the past. Do not force the options upon your ­self. But if you find an oppor ­tu ­ni ­ty worth giv ­ing a try, even if it is out ­side your forte, go for it. Maybe if you pur ­sue some ­thing out ­side your forte, your mar ­ket val ­ue will increase even fur ­ther. 6. Networking The pow ­er of net ­work ­ing can solve a lot of prob ­lems. If you keep your net ­work ­ing plat ­forms updat ­ed, you can get help from var ­i ­ous cor ­ners unex ­pect ­ed ­ly. There are chances that a cer ­tain net ­work from your pro ­file might come through your skills and have a job offer for you. Be a part of any pro ­fes ­sion ­al group on Face ­book or LinkedIn, accord ­ing to your job back ­ground. Chances are you can find great oppor ­tu ­ni ­ties there. Devel ­op a secured net ­work because even if you do not find the best oppor ­tu ­ni ­ty dur ­ing the pan ­dem ­ic, you can have extreme ­ly impres ­sive oppor ­tu ­ni ­ties from your net ­work after all of this is over. Stay dig ­i ­tal ­ly con ­nect ­ed to your for ­mer col ­leagues who might have an oppor ­tu ­ni ­ty for you. Fol ­low com ­pa ­nies of your inter ­est and your field to keep your ­self updat ­ed. 7. Consider Remote Working Com ­put ­er and IT com ­pa ­nies, dig ­i ­tal mar ­ket ­ing com ­pa ­nies, cus ­tomer ser ­vices indus ­tries, etc. are all work ­ing remote ­ly. So if you are inclined towards work ­ing in a field that comes under these com ­pa ­nies, then apply to jobs which will require you to work remote ­ly. Keep apply ­ing to com ­pa ­nies with ­out slow ­ing down. If you are inter ­est ­ed in a par ­tic ­u ­lar com ­pa ­ny, write a cov ­er let ­ter or appli ­ca ­tion and send it to an employ ­er of the com ­pa ­ny. List the job titles that you are will ­ing to work for. Keep a track of how var ­i ­ous com ­pa ­nies are man ­ag ­ing their busi ­ness in cru ­cial times like this. And if you think a com ­pa ­ny is doing good, you can apply to it by send ­ing an appli ­ca ­tion. When you send your appli ­ca ­tion to com ­pa ­nies, make sure to not sound like you are only inter ­est ­ed in the job. Make the com ­pa ­ny aware of how you wish to con ­tribute in help ­ing the com ­pa ­ny over ­come this time of dif ­fi ­cul ­ty. FlexJobs is one of the best web ­sites to find remote work jobs. Conclusion Lever ­age your skills in a dif ­fer ­ent oppor ­tu ­ni ­ty to expand your capa ­bil ­i ­ties. This is the time where you can exper ­i ­ment and know what else is there in store. Most impor ­tant ­ly, keep look ­ing for jobs and do not stop. An inter ­im job until the econ ­o ­my recov ­ers is not a bad idea. Wher ­ev ­er you think there is scope of hir ­ing, ask if help is need ­ed. Do not be afraid of no as an answer. Once the world has a lit ­tle bet ­ter clar ­i ­ty about COVID-19, com ­pa ­nies will be back on track and you will also be able to land the job you have always want ­ed to. But till then, learn as much as you can. And keep search ­ing because you nev ­er know you might land some ­thing bet ­ter than what you expect ­ed. The world is full of relent ­less ­ly tal ­ent ­ed indi ­vid ­u ­als, so embrace being one of them while you search for an oppor ­tu ­ni ­ty. Keep net ­work ­ing strate ­gi ­cal ­ly and make new con ­nec ­tions. This is just anoth ­er obsta ­cle, and we shall cross this as well. It is an obsta ­cle, but obsta ­cles are meant to be crossed and not stopped by. Impor ­tant links to make your Job Search Eas ­i ­er: Work from Home Job Vacan ­cies Online Copy Paste Job Vacan ­cies Online Data Entry Job Vacan ­cies Free ­lance Job Vacan ­cies in India how to find a job in covid-19