The coronavirus epidemic has created an interesting landscape for job hunting, and many people may now be out of a job and searching for a new one. Networking and connecting with other people are key activities for finding new job opportunities. Social distancing makes networking more difficult, so here are some things you can do to keep up your networking activities while keeping your distance from others.
Work on your LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn is still a primary tool used by recruiters and hiring managers. If you don’t have a lot of connections on LinkedIn, now’s the time to sharpen your profile. Change up your summary to now reflect your interests. Make sure your experience section is up to date and add any new certifications or education you’ve achieved. Also, add a new picture if your profile picture is not current. Then, try to connect with even more people through the platform.
Set up virtual meet and greets. Use any downtime you have to set up introduction interviews with other people. To do this, research some companies that interest you. If you don’t know the names of the companies, look up similar jobs you’re interested in, such as searching for “remote academic advisor” if you’d like to work from home advising students. Then, look up what companies hire remote advisors and check out who might already be working in that role. Try to schedule a time to say hello to this person through social media and see if they would be willing to talk about their job with you.
Create amazing content. A lot of people are using the time off work to play around on social media using such platforms as Instagram and TikTok. While this is fun, and there’s nothing wrong with that, try to focus your efforts on something that will help you connect with other people in your industry. For example, you could make a funny TikTok about what it’s like to work in your position and use hashtags to attract other people interested in the same thing. You never know who might respond and who you’ll meet this way.
Eventually, life will get back to a new normal, and maybe we’ll even shake hands with other people in real networking events again. But until then, we all have to be creative about how we still pursue the important task of networking when it comes to job hunting. Think about how you can improve your online presence and try to add a little work in while you’re having fun. Eventually, you can turn many of your current activities into networking experiences.
Although it may seem like there’s a lot of uncertainty right now, HR Managers and Recruiters are still interested in communicating with potential job candidates. If you are interested in learning more about networking, contact me at amy@careerresourcesllc.com.