Beat the pandemic using these 3 hacks to get a Job!
When a fisherman goes to catch fish, many times, he has too many options. Each time he goes out on his boat, he knows he is going to catch fish. But, each time, he also encounters the harsh reality that he never knows which combination of fishing equipment will catch fish that day. He follows his guts, with tested strategies that continue to be true.
In the same way, when it comes to job hunting, we never know which strategy combos are going to get us a job. Even worse, the pandemic has made it difficult for companies to even know when hiring is the right move.
So, how do you job hunt effectively during a pandemic? These 3 tested hacks can help you get that job even if you are nervous and don’t think you’ll ever find a job.
One: Reuse lost opportunities.
Two: Create more social opportunities.
Three: Apply without giving up.
Hack #1: Reusing lost opportunities.
There are many people that had job offers retracted because of the pandemic. Now, with the job offers being rejected, they think there’s nothing they can do.
And thus, you may be wondering “well, what do I do now?”
It’s been almost a year and a half now and many companies are starting to mobilize themselves again. So, what does somebody that had an offer do?
Well, the first thing is to go and reuse those lost opportunities.
Contacting the companies that were giving offers to you. Ask if you can still re-apply at this point of the pandemic.
Whether the response is yes or no, the fact that you want to re-engage those offers actually gives you automatic jobs that normally you wouldn’t have.
But, in the case where you didn’t have any offers that are pending or that were retracted, the next thing is to also contact the companies asking for interviews, because now you have all those people that were given offers that were rejected who may or not have contacted those companies back.
So if you’re able to contact the companies before those companies contact them back, now you have a shot at taking those positions because those offers were already needed for the company before Covid happened.
So that’s step one. Reuse lost offers.
Either contact the company that you lost offers from to be able to re-initiate the offer later or to contact companies that other people have their offers rejected from and propose your services for those companies now that those rejected offers have not been filled yet.
Hack #2: Create more social opportunities.
The next strategy is to create more social opportunities.
So, how do you do that?
Well, simply put, people today are craving social interaction because of the COVID.
Because of the fact that people were not able to be socially around each other for very long, those that love being around people will naturally gather in a space where people are.
By creating those social opportunities, many of those who are social, including managers and people able to hire, will naturally gather in those spaces. Therefore, by simply contacting somebody on LinkedIn and trying to create more social opportunities with them, you can go pretty far.
Yes, that means small talk. But, not the type that is completely pointless.
For example, many people believe that when you have small talk with someone, it is used to waste time until something else happens. However, that is the furthest from the truth.
Here’s what happens in real conversations:
- You talking to the person specifically about things that you enjoy
- You listen to things that those people like
- You understand a little bit better how they work
Even asking them what they previously worked on and some of the experiences and lessons learned while working on those types of projects can lead to highly productive conversations.
By doing that, you’re allowing the person to express themselves openly, which favors the law of reciprocity and gives them the opportunity to hear your own concerns as well.
Giving yourself more opportunities to talk to people who have the power to hire you increases not only the chance to get hired but also the chance for them to vouch for you when others want to hire you.
I will say though that many people would find this uncomfortable given that you are starting up conversations with strangers. With that being said, if you are able to implement it, you’ll be failing above everyone else’s success, which means you have increased opportunities for yourself and made your possibilities to get a job more certain simply because you tried when everyone else didn’t.
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Hack #3: Apply without giving up
Finally, the last one is to apply without giving up.
Today, most people are using online application platforms to be able to apply.
Well, guess what? Applying doesn’t get you a job.
It just starts the opportunity.
After spending so many minutes, if not hours, applying online many people quit applying.
So, how do we maintain our stamina to keep applying? How do we apply without giving up?
Answer: You look for other opportunities to apply to the same company.
One of my students used the contact email that was on a company website to contact them with his resume and got hired by the company instead of through the original job application, which got an instant rejection.
Sometimes, just getting it in front of a human allows you to get the job, whereas the filter, which is the ATS system, can filter you out, and then you have nothing.
So if you just apply online and give up, then you’ll never get a job. But once you apply online, then you look for other ways to apply and talk to people that have worked with the company, only then you’ll be able to have a much higher chance to be able to get an interview and a job. Real people do the hiring, not robots.
Conclusion
In summary, all of these 3 tips focus on one important aspect: talking to people. The more you can talk to people, the faster you can get a job because it’s people that give jobs and it’s people that make money.
If you can’t find a person, you can’t get a job. People need people for jobs.
Therefore, increasing your social skills will automatically double or even triple your ability to be able to find jobs. Those skills are what are required to interact with people more effectively and have more positive conversations around either your job or just small talk in general that is profitable.
A personal example of this is where I’m writing this post.
One of my coworkers, who is originally from Senegal, moved back to his country during the pandemic. So, when the opportunity finally came to come back to Africa, I decided to visit him in Senegal.
How did I get a free hotel and rooming in another country?
Well.. because I’ve had profitable, positive conversations with him when I was at work. Now, when I came to visit him, I was able to stay at a hotel that his family runs for free for four days.
So, social skills are what allow you to create more opportunities for yourself when learning from the experiences of others. As you come to understand those experiences, whether they be in life or on the job, everyone comes to enjoy each other and understand each other better.
People need people to survive (and with job hunting, it’s no different).
