The Job Search, Technology, and COVID-19

Source: Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash

Under normal circumstances, it can take between 12 to 18 months to land a new job. With the new overlay of a pandemic and massive layoffs, getting a job today is very difficult but not impossible.

One of the biggest mistakes job seekers make is spending countless hours applying for jobs online. Psychologically, it makes us feel better that we are physically doing something to find employment. Unfortunately, it is short-lived because we quickly realize that we fill in countless applications to never hear back or get rejected; as a result, we feel helpless and, at times, go into a depression. To effectively manage your time, consider spending two or three hours maximum per week applying for jobs and the rest of your time talking to people.

Having a job strategy will be critical to your success in finding a job sooner rather than later. Your job strategy should include how you will spend your time on a weekly basis. If you’re not typically organized, then I suggest you become organized with your time; otherwise, time will be lost on activities that won’t get you to your ultimate goal — which is getting a job.

The first step I suggest is to pick a day during the week where you can think. Some people prefer Sundays but that’s totally up to you. On this day, your goal is to plan ahead. Decide how many hours you want to spend on your job search.

Many experts say that you should be spending between 40 to 60 hours a week on your job search. This doesn’t mean that you are talking to people or applying online the entire time. It means that you have designated hours for your job search, and it includes emails, LinkedIn searches, talking to people via phone or video, researching companies, and anything else you need to do to find a job. A free tool that I suggest you use to help track your time is called Clockify.me. It monitors how you are spending your time and it is useful to better assess if you should be doing less or more of something.

Another activity you should consider when creating your job strategy is consolidating all your contact information. Many of us have names and numbers of people we’ve met over the years either on our phone, on business cards, notebooks, and, of course, a connection on LinkedIn. My recommendation is to consider investing in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool. CRMs are specifically designed for salespeople to sell products but what people don’t realize is that these tools have a built-in contact management system that is extremely useful for job seekers. For instance, Nutshell connects to your email account and tracks your email exchange so that all discussions don’t get lost. This is helpful because you can simply look up the person you want to talk to and see what were the last email conversations you had with the individual; in addition, this tool has a powerful AI which pulls in all social media links based on the email used.

With your job search strategy at hand, your next step is to get comfortable with networking. For some reason, when people hear the word networking they run away. Perhaps instead of seeing networking as a bad thing, have a mental reframe and think of it as making new friends. It will get you further. If you are still having trouble with meeting new people, perhaps consider joining a Toastmasters group. If you’ve never heard of Toastmasters, it’s a group of supportive people that create a safe space for individuals to practice public speaking. They can be found all over the world.

It is equally important to make sure you are camera ready. I previously wrote a post outlining 10 tips for a video interview set-up. These tips apply now more than ever. Hiring managers no longer can see you in person and can solely rely on the first impressions you make via video. Consider how you sound, your lighting, your camera angle, your background, etc.

Another activity to consider is upskilling your credentials. This is a great opportunity to learn more about other skills that will help you have a competitive advantage in your job search. Whether it is learning about artificial intelligence, project management, entrepreneurship, or the pyramids of Giza, these organizations offer free courses and I recommend that you take the time to see if any of them are of interest to you.

• Project Management Institute
• HarvardX
• Learn@Forbes
• Grow with Google
• Amazon Web Services
• BloombergLive

Lastly, it’s understandable that you are concerned about finding a job now but try not to forget your long term goals. I’ve created a Discover What You Want Workbook that will help you visualize and map your long term goals.

What other tips do you think are important?

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