Covid-19 Job Hunt To do#6: Breathe. Plan. Be Calm.

Photo credits to Andrea Piacquadio

It’s a testament to how tough navigating the job arena is that this advice is needed not just during a pandemic, but also the general phase of job search even during normal times. Unfortunately, for anyone hunting or soon to be hunting — its more true than ever.

Early estimates for when the US economy would open back up used to be sometime towards summer. July, August, September? The rare but fervently cautious would even point to the winter months. But with how long we’ve been in this now, both government and society have realized that this timeline needs to be fast-forwarded. Whether it’s because people trapped in a concrete box for too long drives them crazy or because the continuing shrinking active workforce puts a severe and very real worry on essential services.

Whatever the reason, what’s more important for us is that the timeline has suddenly sped up. Even Dr. Faucci, who has been one of the most cautious and professional members of the federal task force, has said that a rolling reopen will be possible in May. So the months that we thought we had to prepare to get back into the workforce? We might actually only have but weeks.

The point isn’t to panic however. Now more than ever it’s important to breathe and plan for next steps. Of course, this is going to differ on your situation. If you were furloughed for example, it’ll probably be a somewhat immediate return to normalcy (minus of course the financial, mental, and physical impacts of the pandemic). But those laid off or entering the workforce have a wholly different set of considerations. To those, a plan of attack is needed.

So what does that plan look like? It depends on how you want to approach this:

Shotgun Approach — Jobs first, nevermind the company:

1. Crawl through all possible tools for applicable jobs: Linkedin, Google Jobs, Indeed, Angel List, College Job Portals, Company Sites
2. Compile and sort those into a spreadsheet, arrange by creation date or update date
3. Set up a rule on which to tackle immediately and which to invest in. My own rules are: If the posting is older than 7 days, apply digitally ASAP. If it is less, try to reach out to the poster to see if its possible to get a referral and/or attach a face to the resume. The reason is because the older a listing is, the more likely the company has already begun interviews and is ignoring any new applications
4. If someone from the company responds to a cold-outrach, do NOT send your application yet. A referral will massively boost your chances and is well worth the wait. Set up a time-out rules, maybe proceed to apply without it if you don’t get a response within 48 hours
5. This should generally get you rolling. While these are all pending, think about companies you’d like to work for but don’t seem to have a position for you at the current moment (shown by step 1 via their website). If you have spare time, reach out anyway to a recruiter and just get connected. If they believe you’re a quality candidate, most of the time they will happily keep an eye out for you when such a position does get available. If not, they might be likewise open to letting you know more about what you can do to get yourself to be a viable candidate in that future. Either way, it’s invaluable information to have
6. Keep repeating steps 1~4, if you’re doing it right, you’ll eventually either get some nibbles to advance to interviews and/or start seeing the pipeline dry out (I got to this point, where every tool search would get me maybe only 5 new postings a week. Note however this was when I was already WELL into the hundreds. If you’re not seeing that point yet, you’re not trying hard enough)

Targeted Approach: This is very similar to the Shot-gun approach albeit it’s for those are choosier whether because they have the connections or won’t settle for anything less. Fortunately, most of the steps remain identical except:

1. Browsing target company sites comes first and foremost. Other job portals should be used as a way to discover new companies that excite you rather than as postings leads
2. Targeted means that you’ll probably apply to less postings. That does NOT mean you’ll spend less time on applying. Instead it means that if you’ve chosen this path, you have no excuse not to customize your resume and cover letters to each and every application. Even if a 8/10 cover letter won’t probably get you much further than a 9/10 one
3. Likewise, trying to get that referral is 10x more important. Your target company is likely also the target company of many other’s. Even my friends at Google, Apple, and Facebook don’t hear back from their target places without a referral, but they’ll be assuaged all the time by places they’ve never heard or thought of

You might notice that these steps don’t cover the interview process. Practicing for the interview and then the actual activity itself is a whole beast in and of itself and deserves its own section. Note that in the meantime that this practice should be done concurrently while applications are being sent. A tip is to schedule your least interested companies first as a sort of “warm-up.” You can argue that there’s some moral hazard in that — but let’s be realistic… they’re probably doing the same.

Good luck. As always, feel free to reach out with any questions or otherwise. Please follow for the next one!

P.S: If you’ve read a previous article or have taken a look at the publication, you might notice that #2–5 seem to be missing. You’re not imagining things! This one was brought out now because time has become more pressing than ever, and like our own action plans, we have to be flexible and be able to adapt to the changes as need be.