Are you a fresh grad, mid-career professional or freelancer looking to build your career and for networking opportunities? If you are, then read on — we have several career hacks lined up specially to help you during COVID-19!
By now, most of us would have had to make some form of adjustments to our daily lives as a result of COVID-19 — that one unexpected event that came out of nowhere, crushing people’s holiday plans and killing off businesses. Yet, every cloud has a silver lining. While some industries are permanently damaged, others remain unaffected and are even growing. These are in industries such as e-commerce, healthcare and technology (that’s us)!
With COVID-19 restrictions and social distancing measures in place, it has become far more difficult (or near impossible) to hold physical events such as career fairs and seminars and thus, mingle with other professionals and potential employers. However, technology has offered a work around to that in the form of virtual career fairs and online webinars. Even remote internships have become more common. Employers are also increasingly turning to technology to hire prospective employees during COVID-19. Forget face-to-face interviews — video and virtual interviews are now the norm (ever heard of Skype, Zoom or Google Hangouts?)
While we are unable to do anything about the pandemic, what we can do is to adapt to it. For example, COVID-19 may have forced organisers to cancel events and conferences, but that should not stop us from networking — albeit through an online channel. So, what can you do to boost your career in this difficult situation and stand out in the digital space?
Below we have summarized the top 6 most useful tips for you on what you can do to increase your visibility during this pandemic:
1. Attend online webinars
This might sound a bit obvious, but attending online webinars will boost your knowledge and skills. It will also be good experience for you to practise your networking skills with other like-minded professionals. You might even be talent-spotted at these webinars when you raise good questions to the speakers!
2. Reach out to people
It’s common for job seekers to just sit and wait after sending off an application, but in this pandemic situation where many companies are not hiring, it becomes even more important to follow up with hirers to ensure that they remember you. You should also reach out to connections within your network — they might have more time to respond to you now.
3. Update your skills
We all know that one friend who always complains that they are too busy to take a professional course to deepen their skills. But with more people staying home during COVID-19, they have no more excuse with the extra time on their hands. Furthermore, there are many online courses going at discounted rates or even for free on the online learning platforms like Coursera so having some accredited certifications on your profile is sure to catch the eye of recruiters.
4. Attend virtual career fairs
Career fairs have recently gone virtual in the light of COVID-19. While it may be disappointing not to have that same face-to-face interaction, going virtual also means that candidates can visit the fair at their own time, making it so much more convenient. Such fairs also usually have the option to leave your resume at participating companies’ booths.
5. Join online networking sessions
Now’s not the time to be shy — if you want to stay visible to potential employers, you should put yourself out there as much as possible (in the online space, of course!). And that means attending as many online networking sessions as you can. Who knows — the next person that you talk to could be a HR recruiter or someone who can recommend you to their company. If you are uncomfortable going alone, grab a friend to go with you.
So there you have it! Having to network and make the switch to online in this current climate can be depressing. But it doesn’t have to be. With these tips, you can boost your career visibility in no time! Let us know what you think of these tips on Medium!
P.S. Truffle Technologies is continuously looking for fresh talent and visionaries; extraordinary people who want to be part of our mission and are ready to catapult us to the next level. Find out more about our job openings here: https://truffletech.com/careers