It will be crucial for impacted workers to identify all the best practices and approaches for finding the next job chance as more small businesses close during this time of uncertainty. The methods you take may be different from others depending on your area of expertise, level of experience, location, and ability to work.
It can be overwhelming to locate businesses that are still actively hiring, but it is not difficult. In the last few weeks, a tone of tools has emerged that make this search very simple. For instance, the Levels.fyi team developed this database, and Candor, a provider of salary negotiation resources, developed this dashboard that allows users to add businesses that are still hiring to the list.
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Do’s
- Be ready to receive leads and introductions for new opportunities and be open about sharing your job aspirations with your social and personal networks. Begin by requesting recommendations from family, friends, and former coworkers and supervisors.
- Regardless of your prior experience or skill set, broaden the range of businesses and industries you are targeting in your employment search. This will shield you from losing all of your employment opportunities in the event that one sector struggles while you’re looking.
- Pay attention to businesses that don’t rely too heavily on discretionary consumer spending because these are likely to be the ones struggling to experience a real recovery during this recession.
- If you are on the verge of financial hardship, take into account freelance, contract, and 1099 possibilities.
- Have several versions of your resume on hand for various positions and sectors, using pertinent industry jargon as necessary.
- Have a memorized 30-second elevator pitch about your qualifications and experience that you can use whenever you meet with neighbors, proprietors of nearby businesses, or potential employees.
- Be tenacious, upbeat, and ambitious. Everything moves in cycles, so things will improve.
Don’ts
- Don’t give up much in the way of significant salary variations from what you can currently expect in the market. To get back to where you were will be much more difficult.
- If you are only marginally qualified for the position, don’t attempt to take on more responsibility or expand your job’s scope. By taking this risk, you may increase your chances of leaving that work early and returning to your previous situation.
- Do not restrict where you search for new opportunities. No applicant is too alluring to use employment boards. Your employment search should include using Google, LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, Craigslist, and other sites.
- If you won’t be fully reimbursed for all necessary expenses, don’t accept a position that demands relocation or a significant change in lifestyle.
- Don’t cease spending money on education that could increase your marketability in a stronger economy.
- Instead of listening to news reports or watching television shows that repeatedly discuss the economy, take action and keep your eyes on your objectives.
If you’ve recently lost your job, a few quick pieces of advice for how to recover from a layoff:
- Find a community online-Join forces with those who have lately or previously experienced job loss. During a time like this, realizing that you’re not alone and asking for guidance can be quite helpful.
- Network- Attend industry events, whether they are physical or online. To locate your next chance, you must keep moving.
- Don’t lie about your employment situation. A layoff is a difficult thing to admit for many of us. The more people you tell, though, the better your chances are of someone helping to find you a companion — or in this case, a job. If you take off that Band-Aid, it may be like courting. On your couch, you won’t really find either. (I’ve attempted.) Social media may be used for more than just boasting about your fantastic new job or your hot new bae. (They’re very fantastic, by the way.) Finding possibilities and expressing your status are key. And people value honesty a much.
How to make your resume stand out
You shouldn’t send out your resume and cover letter to ten or twenty different jobs using a generic template. When you approach a corporation to recruit you, you are requesting regular payment from them (along with possible bonuses). Spend some extra time customizing your cover letter and resume for the business and position you’re looking for.
These brief resume hints will help you:
- Study the job description, and when explaining your experience, use some of the same wording.
- Wherever you can, provide exact numbers to illustrate your successes.
- Arrange your experience beginning with positions where you performed duties that were comparable to those listed in the job description.
- Choose no more than six abilities to emphasize in your CV. Keep it to the three or four that the employer is most interested in, according to some experts.
- In your talents area, stay away from broad, generic terms like “sales,” “customer relations,” “marketing techniques,” and “public speaking.” According to Julie Bauke, founder and principal career strategist at The Bauke Group, a list of four to six of these can appear to be “verbal vomit.”
- Don’t stray from the conventional resume format. Unless you are going for a creative job, avoid being overly creative with your CV. Then it’s acceptable to display a little of your ingenuity.
- Provide plenty of white space and don’t write more than two pages. Personally, I would advise trying to keep it to one page, particularly if you are just starting out. One of a hiring manager’s first impressions of you will come from your resume, therefore being able to edit and market yourself effectively is crucial.
How to ace the interview
Here are the tips for answering three commonly asked questions in the interview:
- Tell me about yourself, then. Keep your reaction succinct (under one minute). Don’t blather on. Emphasize your accomplishments and strengths. Also, Hyman advised that you make an effort to convey your motivations and your goals for your next position.
- “What is your greatest achievement?” Choose a significant professional accomplishment and briefly outline the measures you took to get there. Make sure to give figures, such as “raised sales by X%” or “improved customer satisfaction by Y,” to illustrate this.
- Describe the gap in your CV if you can. You must respond to this question honestly, firmly, and without remorse.
Make a plan
The next step is to begin edging closer to employing managers. It is suggested that you create a spreadsheet with around ten organizations that interest you. “Maybe you approve of their objectives or goods,” Write it in writing and make note of any relationships you may have with the companies.
After that, work your way down the spreadsheet by contacting your contacts and submitting applications for available positions. The genius of this exercise is that it gives you specific, doable tasks to finish while simultaneously forcing you to expand your professional network.
Conclusion
While some of these suggestions might be apparent, others might be the very thing you need to hear at this precise moment. If you are unemployed or on the verge of being so, the only sane thing to do is to be proactive and actively seek for your future employment.
We will finally overcome this economic crisis, just like we have with all previous ones, with fresh optimism and greater life experience.