5 Useful Job Hunting Hacks You Haven’t Heard About

Job Hunting Hacks
Job Hunting Hacks

If you’re reading this, then most likely you’ve lost your job because of Covid-19. It’s surreal to be searching for employment during a time of pandemic. The labor market is not what it used to be and changes need to be made to your job-hunting strategy. It’s going to be hard, but not impossible.

If you know what you’re doing.

Job hunting in a Covid-19 environment

Covid-19 has significantly impacted the job market. Unemployment rates have surpassed the Great Depression and the outlook for many people around the world is unpleasant. In the USA alone, more than 8 million people have been pushed into poverty. If the labor market has been competitive until now, we’re entering a whole new era.

Brace yourself for all virtual

It’s been months since any of us has been outside without a mask on or guard up. Networking at in-person events has become distant to the memory. All your efforts should fall on how you can harness all your digital resources. Yes, we do use job sites and LinkedIn to get a new position, but Covid-19 has completed the transition. Get a digital business card, update and analyze your resume with the right tools and step up on your social media game.

Network a lot

Even in the before times a resume and a headshot without context didn’t necessarily guarantee you would get hired no matter how good your resume is. Familiarity creates trust, and with the higher competition rates trust has become all the more valuable. It’s time to build on the relationships in your industry and get your name out there.

Look for companies doing incredibly well recently

It’s grim out there and the outlook does not look particularly good for many professions. However, the pandemic has highlighted some industries, which have escaped the ill fate of airlines, hotels and restaurants. The tech industry has mostly come out unfazed as has the pharmaceutical industry. With reliance on deliveries, logistical and courier services report solid performances. Other avenues to look into include online education and training, cybersecurity, gaming and customer support.

Research where your particular skills are applicable and in what capacity and then scout for the companies that have been doing business as usual, if not better during the time of the pandemic.

The job hunting hacks you haven’t heard about

Job boards are a good starting point, but are not the be-all and end-all when it comes to job search. HR departments everywhere receive an incredible volume of resumes for a single position daily. Now more so than ever due to colossal spike in unemployment following lockdowns. If you rely on the strength of your resume alone, we guarantee you are getting lost through the cracks. Time to switch gears and actually hunt down the perfect job for you.

1. Attend as many recruitment events as possible

Oddly enough the pandemic is not the death sentence to recruitment events as many expected. Yes, we’re not going to be shaking hands and standing close to one another in a crowded hall any time soon, but there are Zoom and Discord. After the initial shock to multiple industries, organisers have quickly adopted new digital tools to migrate conventions, exhibitions, trade fairs, hackathons and conferences online.

2. Take advantage of the entire LinkedIn potential

LinkedIn holds a lot more potential than you think especially with social distancing shutting down many of the conventional in-person methods to network. Now is the time to become active, if you have all but forgotten about your profile. Begin posting, update your resume and pictures. Change your LinkedIn headline to announce you’re looking for a specific position and dive deeper into the connections of your connections to discover new potential opportunities. Sign up for groups and engage with the content of others. While you should be focused on getting a job, you don’t want to become so single-minded as to turn off recruiters.

3. Look for unadvertised opportunities

What’s your dream job? Right now, it’s challenging to land a fantastic job, which will further your career, but at the very least you have a solid idea as to where you would like to work. What are the companies that interest you? Scout those companies’ websites for any job opening advertised there or better yet get in touch with HR to make inquiries. Another valuable resource to consider is the old faithful Twitter, where there’s a whole ecosystem of recruiters posting daily.

Our point is – there’s a lot more out there beyond job boards. What you have to do is go out and work at it.

4. Set up your RSS feeds

Just because you’re unemployed doesn’t mean you have all the time in the world to refresh every job board multiple times per day. You never know when the perfect position for you might pop up and in this climate you can’t afford to miss it. RSS is here to help. Subscribe to feeds most relevant to your professional experience on job sites and have new postings redirected to one single feed at your disposal. The benefit of using RSS feed readers is that your feed updates itself in real time and you’ve consolidated all job or company sites into one place.

5. Catch up with all colleagues frequently

Community, community, community. In uncertain times, it’s the strength of your community that will pull you through and this applies to job hunting. Tap into your personal network of colleagues – current or former – to find possible job offers suitable for your skillset. Speaking directly to people within a company can yield job openings before they’re even announced or advertised. Sometimes, you should let social media algorithms do the work for you. A post on Facebook and Twitter can produce job leads from places you didn’t expect.