February – even early March – seems SO far away, doesn’t it?
And when it comes to looking for a job? Shaking hands. Heading to networking events or conferences. Heading to a potential employer’s location for a job interview. No more!
Now – and for possibly several weeks or months – your job search will need to be conducted almost completely online.
Here are the different ways the job hunt has changed now – and probably for several months – due to the coronavirus crisis.
- You already know you’re going to be interviewing online for the foreseeable future. Yet job fairs also probably will be held online.
Here’s a short peek at how this may look, as provided by a job fair held in Wuhan, China earlier this year.
- As the “stay-at-home” edicts are staying put, many employers are putting hiring on hold.
Many still are hiring, especially grocery stores, delivery companies, etc. But many others have decided on a wait-and-see process.
- Temporary positions are growing, but not just at temporary staffing firms.
Many large companies such as Amazon, CVS, Domino’s/Pizza Hut, Instacart, Walmart, and even GE Healthcare are looking for thousands of temporary workers. Good news? Many of these positions could become permanent.
- Networking has gone completely online.
If you haven’t updated your LinkedIn profile in a while, it’s time. You also should clean up your Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, SnapChat, and Facebook channels. If you’re new to networking on these social channels, here are some tips on how to ace your efforts on LinkedIn specifically and social channels generally.
- While companies ARE hiring, it’s going to take longer to land interviews…and jobs.
How we wish this weren’t the case, but it is. With millions of people applying for unemployment benefits as of early April and thousands of businesses closed, this outcome is inevitable.
- Negotiating salary and benefits may be more difficult, meaning you may not get what you want.
The huge numbers of closed businesses and people laid off means the tide has turned – for now, at least – toward employers. It’s no longer a candidate’s market: it’s an employer’s market.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ask for more in either salary or benefits when offered a position, it just means you should be aware that you may not get more.
In other words, this isn’t the time to be really picky. This may be hard to hear after months of companies being desperate for workers and offering all sorts of perks and hiring bonuses. But forewarned is forearmed.
Bottom line: you have your work cut out for you as you search for….work. This in no way means you won’t find any. It means instead that if you need to find a job, you should do little else right now than look for one.
