With the Covid-19 pandemic all around us, the natural reaction to this sort of crisis might be to curl up in a corner with a book or your iPad, watch TV, eat snacks and decide that you’ll think about your career when all of this is over.
What if you realized that a lot of your colleagues are doing the same thing; i.e., just waiting for this to be over before thinking about job hunting? Although many businesses are closed now and job opportunities may be limited, right now may be the right time to look for a new position now while there are fewer applicants.
In fact, given that you have a lot of free time now, this could be a great time for you to start a job search or kick up the momentum on one you had started before.
Dig out the resume you had started a few months ago and update it. You might check with a Career Counselor to see if it’s as strong a marketing document as it could be.
And, yes, you can start networking. The people you want to talk to probably have more time than usual to meet with you, even if it’s on Zoom, Facetime or some other platform where you can see each other. And some people are comfortable with telephone meetings. People were beginning to do interviews on that type of online platform before the pandemic, so there’s no reason you can’t interview that way now. Some employers prefer to do them online because it saves time.
And yes, you could practice with a career counselor to brush up your skills.
If you want some coaching to prepare for gearing up your search, feel free to write us jlansky@lanskycareerconsultants.com or call us at (312) 285-2000. We’ll be there.
