4 Things You Can Control to Impact Your Job Search in Times of Uncertainty

My team of 90+ career coaching professionals and I supported over 2K career changers who've completed their online or on-campus course at The Flatiron School; the #1 coding bootcamp as ranked by Course Report. Amidst the current state of affairs, we've experienced a spike of anxiety from many of our job-seekers due to the level of ambiguity that comes from running a job search during a pandemic crisis - such as the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak. Fair enough.

I don't know about you, but this is my first foray into this new reality where, each day, we are met with new regulations and restrictions imposed on us by governments, albeit for our well-being and for the greater good. There is no hiding the fact that the foreseeable future will pose immediate challenges for job-seekers in the following ways:

1. Hiring freezes, furloughs, and workforce reductions
2. Postponement and cancellation of conferences, job fairs and networking events
3. Drop in people's interest to meet in-person due to new social distancing norms

This leads me to pose the following question to you...

What can you directly control to increase your chances of landing a job in our current business environment as we deal with the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak?

1. What You Say to Yourself Determines Your Experience

You will never speak to anyone more than you speak to yourself in your head. What was the last bit of dialogue you had with yourself as it relates to your job search? Please, take a minute to reflect on this before continuing to read.

Did it sound something like, "Ugh (eye-roll), I'll never get a job now because no one is hiring, recruiters aren't getting back to me on my job applications and emails, and it feels like everything is working against me"?

• Is that thought productive?
• Can I take an immediate action to change any of these outcomes?
• Is it true?

... No; therefore, this bit of dialogue is unnecessary.

We need some internal checks and balances, because our thoughts are not synonymous with the truth. When you find yourself launching into a negative spiral of emotion related to your job search, challenge yourself to identify the thought(s) that caused you to feel that way. Then, ask yourself the three questions above to validate or disprove that thought. And once you've done that, it will be time again to focus on what you can control.

2. Grow Your Network Through Virtual Meetings

Outside of resilience and a positive mindset, the sometimes overlooked key to a successful job search is to actually narrow your focus and be targeted on industries and companies that align with your interests and values. If you spend a lot of your time reading about the latest health and nutrition trends, cooking healthy meals, and exercising, my guess is that you will have stronger cultural chemistry with a health and wellness company compared to a company in the banking sector.

Just because companies may be pausing their hiring processes or downsizing, doesn't mean that your fellow humans who still work at those companies, who inherently have a desire to help others, will not be willing to have a conversation or exchange emails with you. So, here is something you can do to regain control of your job search. Put together a list of your top three industries and from each industry, pick your top three large, medium, and small companies.

You can utilize LinkedIn to find people with the specific title you are looking for at these companies you've highlighted and create a lead tracking tool to keep tabs on each individual. You can find an individual's email address by scraping their LinkedIn profile using Skrapp and then use the following cold email template to win a virtual informational interview, which you can hold by using free tools like Skype, Google Hangouts Meet, or FaceTime/Google Duo on your smartphone.

Hi ____,

I came across your profile on LinkedIn and felt compelled to reach out to you. As someone with a desire to work in (Role Title) within the (Industry Title) your background in (Area of Expertise) and current work at (Company Name) in (Functional Area) is inspiring. While this may be a bit forward, I would love to meet with you to gain some advice and hear your story. I am sure you are quite busy, but even just 30 minutes of your time will give me the opportunity to learn from someone with an impressive background like your own. 

I would love to meet for coffee, but I know with recent circumstances it will be best to meet over video chat or via phone call. I am usually available to meet at the following (dates and times). Please let me know if there is a timeframe that works best for you. Thank you in advance and I'm looking forward to hearing back from you!

The formula for successful cold email outreach is as follows:

• 15 emails per day to unique individuals usually leads to one positive response
• Following up 3 days after your initial outreach to all non-responsive parties will likely lead to one additional positive response
• Your final outreach should happen 3 days after your second outreach to the remaining non-responders, which also usually results in one positive response

When these companies inevitably re-open their hiring processes and you happen to be at top of mind for hiring managers and individuals in the department you are aiming to work for due to your networking efforts, you should not be surprised. These informational interviews will continue to pay dividends as long as you keep in touch with your new contacts. Even if these meetings don't land you a job immediately, the relationships that you are building have the potential to support your future career pivots.

3. Shifting Industry Focus

Although industry alignment with your values and interests is important, it will be increasingly less likely to find an open role during a global pandemic crisis in the Hospitality, Travel and Tourism industries for example. So, if your goal is to strategically land a job as quickly as possible, it would make sense to see which industries are firing on all cylinders.

For example, this report published on March 11, 2020 via Glassdoor Economic Research has some interesting statistics regarding a surge in job postings responding to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak. Certain roles across states that were most greatly impacted during the outbreak saw an increased demand in job postings, per the chart below.

"In the United States, 32 percent of these jobs are being posted by employers in the government, health care, biotech & pharmaceuticals, and nonprofit industries. Another 34 percent are being opened by business services firms, which includes third-party staffing & recruiting firms that are often used to rapidly fill high-demand, contract positions like those in the chart above."

4. React with Understanding and Find Ways to Add-Value

If you are in the midst of a hiring process and you receive an email from the recruiter informing you that they've had to pause your hiring process, it is likely that you are feeling a bit annoyed and discouraged. It is OK to feel that way, but it would be poor form to allow your sentiments to 1) influence your response to that recruiter and 2) decrease your motivation to drive your job search forward.

The way we respond to these situations says a lot about our character and paints a vivid picture in the receiver’s mind about how we respond to challenges. Here is the key to demonstrating empathy AND persistence, as well as to adding value and staying at top of mind for the role once the hiring process reopens:

1. Put yourself in the recruiter or hiring manager's shoes. If these freezes are top down decisions stemming from an extenuating circumstance, then it is best to share that you totally understand the situation at hand, express that you very much want the role, and mention that great opportunities like this are worth waiting for.
2. Ask questions to determine what types of projects and challenges your future colleagues are working on. Getting insights on what the department's needs are will help you utilize this downtime to craft a relevant value-added project that you can share with the company, or write a blog post that can help inform the team's work. Nothing quite says that you are interested in the role like a project or research that demonstrates your value to your future teammates.
3. Ask for an expected timeline for reopening the role so you can plan scheduled outreach to the hiring manager for following up with your value-added projects or research. This information will also help you plan on how much time to spend on this opportunity vs. continuing to job seek and pursue other opportunities that have a higher potential of moving to the offer stage faster.

In closing, we can guarantee one thing: change is the only constant in life. We control how we choose to react and we control the actions that we choose to take. Let's choose to operate during this ambiguous time in a manner that promotes understanding and in a manner that utilizes the out-of-the-box approaches to job-seeking mentioned in this article.

If you need support during these times, please don't hesitate to connect with me and message me directly.