Jobseeking in a COVID-19 world: how to ensure your chances of success

If you missed our webinar today on how to increase your chances of securing a job in this down economy, you can watch the full webinar here.

Lead coach at CareerSwitch Viren Thakrar shares with Joel McInnes some of his best advice. With deep experience in the HR space as well as at an individual level, Viren really has valuable insight to get ahead.

Job searching in a COVID-19 world is fraught with hurdles. Organisations are pulling in the hiring reigns, leading to an exponential rise in unemployment and more candidates competing for less roles. COVID-19 has also brought the future of work to our doorstep which has led to a significant change in the types of roles we are seeing.

Pause, Reflect, Act

The knee-jerk reaction to being stood down or made redundant is to act quickly to find a new role, which is understandable. You should, however, stop focusing on action and apply some practical tactics to think about what you want to do.

Think about you:

1. Your job title doesn’t define who you are
2. What transferable skills do you have that might align to your future role
3. What value can you bring – take time to define your own value proposition
4. Clearly articulate what is that you want to do in your own mind

Think about what industries will be hiring now, in the coming weeks and months. Joel shared some right pick industries that are likely to bounce back post COVID-19 that you should focus your attention on such as big government, technology, insurance and manufacturing/supply chain. Then think about you could potentially transfer some of your skills and experience into those sectors.

You need to adapt your approach

Screening technologies have been applied for quite some time; however talent acquisition teams will now be increasing effective methods to whittle down shortlists to deal with the new volume of applicants.

Take this time to take practice tests to get better and more comfortable doing them, but also to get a better sense of self. Viren recommends SHLDirect as a great resource for taking practice tests.

Look at Luminosity for taking brain tests – not only will you feel more relaxed doing psychometric testing it’s again a great way to understand your own strengths more clearly.

Viren recommends Jobscan to optimse your resume per role, so that your keywords match up in the organisations applicant tracking systems to boost your interview chances.

Get comfortable in front of the camera. Video interviews will be more and more prevalent, so take time to get comfortable to being screened online.

Stay Fresh

It’s important, especially though this stressful time that you maintain a balance of jobseeking and building your networks and self, so that you don’t burn out. Carve out time in your days to connect with other people, access workshops and learning resources to keep you focused on you goals of getting to the best place you can.