Hi Dear Bossy readers,
First - are you doing ok?
In this time of COVID-19 and the remaking of our economy, our lives, our health, our priorities, and our careers, I have sought out friends and colleagues who can provide context and new perspectives on how to navigate these strange and scary times. Instead of our traditional question and answer blog, I am going to interview people on their perspectives. So watch this space for some interesting discussions (and tell me who I should interview).
To kick it off, and given the staggering number of unemployed and furloughed workers, I wanted to talk with my friend Melinda, an internal recruiter at a tech company here in Portland.
Melinda Conant
Senior Recruiter, Open Sesame
Melinda is one of those rare people who has dedicated their career to a singular area of work…professional matchmaking. Her 15 years of experience in recruitment, in a variety of industries has given her a unique perspective on the candidate journey and the motivations of hiring teams. Her personal journey has been focused on exploring the ways to build the life of abundance that we all deserve and identifying the unique ways in which we add value in the areas of our lives that matter most.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/melindaconant/
Our Discussion
Dear Bossy Thanks so much for taking the time to talk with me. Given the current environment with COVID, the economy, a lot of the layoffs, what should people who are looking to make a change be doing right now?
Melinda I want to just start by saying to folks who are currently employed that now is not the time to make any moves. I know that sometimes when things get tough, our instinct is to want to make big changes. I just want to remind people that now is definitely not the time to make big career moves.
I think your focus needs to be on preparation and intention setting in anticipation of the economy reopening.
For folks that are unemployed or furloughed, which is obviously an unprecedented amount of the population. As of today, we’re at 30 million people unemployed and that number will go up as the unemployment department processes people. For people who are in that situation, I want to paint a picture of what's happening from the employer side generally.
There are certain industries which are growing like crazy. Those industries are, for instance, technologies that help us connect with each other remotely, transportation, online shopping, are some of the kind of key areas that I see really continuing to boom, but just about everybody else is in some kind of hiring pause or freeze.
I currently work in software so I have a better sense of what's happening in the software market, and I can tell tell you that from this side, what I'm seeing a lot is that companies haven't let go of their headcount or hiring plans for the year, but they are pausing on them with the expectation that when the market gets back up and running, that those jobs will reopen.
So what I'm expecting is a pretty huge glut of jobs re-entering the market when life goes back to normal, or some semblance of normal. And again, I don't know what's going to happen, but this is what I’m hearing in the conversations I'm having with other Recruiters. So my suggestion to folks right now, is that if you are in a situation where you've been furloughed or unemployed and are going to be looking for another job now is not the time necessarily to be putting in applications.
I think your focus needs to be on the preparation and the intention setting in preparation for the economy reopening.
My recommendations are:
Network network network! I strongly suggest that people reach out to folks in their personal but more importantly, professional networks, and they can be people you most recently worked with or people you've worked with in the past, who you had good relationships with, and let them know that you're on the market.
Update your social media pages that you're on the market and most importantly update your LinkedIn page. And by that, I mean make sure that all of the information is up to date, make sure on your page that you've selected the “open to opportunities” part of your page so that people know that you're looking.
Ask for recommendations - The other thing that I would recommend is that now is a really great time to beef up what I would consider to be the most important part of your LinkedIn page, which is the recommendations portion. The recommendations part of your LinkedIn page is different than the endorsements part of your page. Recommendations are essentially an online reference for you. It is specifically talking about who you’ve worked with and how you performed in that role. This part of your LinkedIn page is gold to recruiters. I promise you that recruiters are looking at this and they value this feedback. And if you were recently laid off, it’s very likely that your team and your company are happy to support you in any way that they can to help you get back to work and this is a really valuable thing that's easy and quick for them to do, and just has a huge ROI for you. Another pro tip, when you write somebody a recommendation, the system in LinkedIn actually then prompts the other person to write a recommendation for you. So it just creates added incentive for them to write a recommendation for you and can be a great way for you to reconnect with people in your network.
Finally, now is a really great time to reprioritize and think about goal setting. One of the things that I would encourage people to do in this time where the market is a bit quiet is to spend some time really documenting, writing out, what types of work you enjoy doing and why. I think that in an economy that is booming, we have a lot of luxury to focus on job titles. I'm currently a recruiting manager, I'm only going to look at recruiting manager jobs or recruiting director jobs etc. I think that with the economy being what it is, we're going to be forced to rethink where our skills are applicable. I would encourage people to do a homework exercise to make lists of what types of projects, what type of work you enjoy doing and what elements need to be present in a company or a job environment for you to be truly successful. I think core values are a really good way to create effective language around a company culture that works for you. I like this approach right now because I think that when the economy opens back up, I just think it's going to be a bit chaotic and very easy to get distracted by brands and titles and it's going to be highly competitive. Whereas if we think about, more generally, the type of work that we like to do and the environment that we want to be in, I think it can open up our minds, if you will, to what we can do that might be a little bit different than what we've done before, but equally satisfying.
Dear Bossy Ok great advice. Network, get your LinkedIn profile beefed up, ask for recommendations and spend some time thinking about what you want next when jobs do open up. That said, are people still hiring right now? And what does that look like? That's maybe different than what it looked like six - eight weeks ago, before COVID?
Melinda In the conversations that I'm having with other recruiting leaders in companies (with the caveat that my world is really focused in software, so I can't speak to every industry), but, for companies that are still up and running, people aren't ditching their headcount plan. If they had headcount planned in 2020, for the most part, they're on pause. So even for companies that are outwardly recruiting, I think they are on pause and will likely reopen those positions when this lifts, when we're back to work.
Obviously, that will shift dramatically once people get back to work and get a sense of what the financial impact of this has been on their business. I know there are a lot of companies still hiring. In the technology space, there are a lot of technology companies that have been doing really well in this situation because they're building or providing a technology that is aiding companies in doing their work remotely. I will tell you that for a lot of companies, and again, this is just my purview into software, but the jobs that seem to really still be open are anything revenue driving or software engineering / support focused.
Engineering is just such a hard area to recruit, super technical roles basically seem to be still moving forward. For most companies, in all honesty, I think it's because they're hoping to be able to take advantage of some of the people newly on the market that weren’t before. For companies that are hiring, if they have positions open, they are being extraordinarily picky.
For most companies even if they're doing well, executives and leadership are being very conservative about how money is being spent. And even if a position is open, hiring managers are having to really go to bat to get hires made and timelines are moving a lot slower. And, where the bar is already set really high on finding the perfect fit, it feels like it's even higher right now.
I would say, now is probably not the time to be thinking about a role that you're maybe under or overqualified for, or making drastic or radical changes. I think that that opportunity will come when the economy opens back up, but right now, hiring teams, even in companies that are doing well, are moving very conservatively.
Dear Bossy One of the things that I'm seeing now is that it is hard for companies who are used to being in the same room together to bring you in for an interview. They are having to flex new muscles around what does an interview committee really look like when we are all working from home? And for candidates, when you can't feel what it is like to go to work there. Obviously there are some all remote workforces, but that's pretty rare.
Melinda Yeah, it puts both sides of the table, the job seeker and the hiring team, at a true disadvantage. The job seeker is no longer able to see the office environment and get a feel for what their day to day is going to be and, hiring teams are more cautious, because they also don't get that team fit and feel, through video.
Dear bossy Ok. Last question. I want you to leave us with your top three things candidates should do right now to keep the attention of the hiring manager. So I am asking you to stand in for all internal recruiters right now.
Melinda Here are my 3 tips:
Network to become a referral - My number one recommendation right now is setting your mind to networking as a way to become a referral. So especially right now, folks in your network are eager to connect with people they knowwho they've enjoyed working with. I think people are really ripe and open to having those conversations. And I think the best thing you can possibly be doing right now is making connections with those networks, and very much with the intention that you get put in front of a recruiter as a referral. I like to tell people that being a referral is worth 1000 applications, and that right there is what is going to get you in the door. Especially when the market opens back up and things are extremely competitive. I mean, they are competitive now for a different reason. But when there's 30 million people starting to look for work again, the best thing you can do for yourself is be a referral. So, that's my number one, you know, network network network, make connections.
Get your social media, LinkedIn page up to date.
Keep your spirits up - This is maybe the hardest one, but I cannot encourage people enough to think about ways to remain calm and positive. And I know that this sounds trite and potentially impossible right now, but I can tell you that as a recruiter, when I talk to a candidate who is feeling very down and very negative about their current situation, it makes it tough to want to move forward. Again, I know that the biggest challenge that we face when we're in the job market is to remain positive and remain calm. But I can tell you, it makes a huge impact when somebody comes to the table who is calm and confident and genuinely interested in us, rather than having that kind of smack of desperation and just interested in finding a J-O-B. The tone of the conversation makes a big difference.
Reach out to us with your questions or suggest who we should interview next.
If you have questions for Melinda, you can reach her on Linkedin.
And her company, OpenSesame does have several jobs open, so check those out.