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Job Seeking During COVID-19 Challenges
Job seekers! How are you staying happy in this challenging time of finding a job? If you're recently graduated Master's student who went straight through undergrad to graduate school and now looking for a job - how are you keeping yourself focused?
Decided to leave the job in November thinking I was able to find another job in a few weeks. But then the COVID happened, it was a shock at first but thankfully I have a very supportive circle of friends that kept me positive.
What I did was, register at the virtual job fairs to meet with recruiters, also seek information about professional organizations so I can work in my professional network. Since everything now a days is virtual, decided to take some online courses to keep up with my expertise.
So far it turned out great because I found a job, and decided to do a career change.
It is really tough but we have to keep looking for the opportunities and try to reinvent ourselves.
Where have you been taking online courses? And do you think this has boosted your job search and career change?
Hi there.
Yes it did boosted my job search, because I wanted to do a career change towards Digital Marketing and needed to refresh on knowledge and skills for that area.
I did some in LinkedIn, subscribe in a few webinars towards Digital Marketing and took advantage in a link Harvard University offered at the beginning of the Pandemic back in March.
LinkedIn helped me a lot in finding resources by making connections with people in my same area of interest.
I was on furlough for 60 days before ultimately being laid off. During the furlough time period, I was optimistic about the prospect of going back. Because of this and the nature of my work, my job search during this time was more low-key. More of my time was focused on personal to dos and some side hustles to bring in a little extra cash. That kept me busy, but of course since my job search was low-key I didn't have much success there and easily got down about those prospects.
Since being laid off, I upped my game. Reaching out to contacts to proactively tell them about my job search, making more visible changes to my LinkedIn profile. I've been very blessed to have two opportunities come my way that seem very promising. One of those is with people with whom I worked previously. THAT has been a huge component of a confidence boost for me - the feedback that they've been sharing and the interest they've shown. It gives me confidence/reassurance that I am really good at my job and that even if either of these opportunities don't work out, I will land somewhere good.
Additionally, since I'm laid off I'm more open to work that I wouldn't have considered if I were still employed. Both of these opportunities are ones that I wouldn't have considered otherwise. Being open to them has allowed me to see exciting potential in both. If either of them do work out, I think that they'll be a huge boost to my resume and giving me career opportunities that either wouldn't have been available or that I wouldn't have considered otherwise.
Bottom line: Reach out to your personal connections and be open to opportunities you may not have considered. Both have the potential to excite you and give you the mental boost you may need.
Do you feel that your connections or any new connections you've made have been more helpful than applying to jobs? And do you think this rings more useful especially now that we're in a pandemic?
Well, there are two that I would consider more helpful because they are the ones that led to these particular opportunities, but other people have been helpful in writing recommendations on LinkedIn, serving as professional references when recruiters have asked, and/or for bouncing off ideas/perspectives.
I think that your network is always going to result in better job opportunities. The "upside" to job searching with the pandemic is that gave me the freedom to be honest about my situation - with my network and prospective employers. No one is going to question your abilities when a layoff is a result of the pandemic or larger economic shifts. I didn't have to worry about how that would come across. So I was honest and it hasn't affected me one bit, that I'm aware of.
It's definitely rough out there! I try to prioritize my mental health by taking breaks throughout the day and trying to connect with other people for networking opportunities. If you are interested in connecting with other people via zoom to chat, you should check out LunchClub and/or Cafecito. I can provide recommendations if need be. Good luck!