How to get a full-time job during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Some insights to help you navigate through the calamity
With a lot of uncertainty in the world, including the current job market, what can you do to improve your chances of landing a job? Whether you’re a recent grad entering the job market, laid off, etc. we all face the arduous journey of job hunting. For me, I was looking for a full-time product management role.
Being a recent grad + the extreme difficulty landing a product role (since it’s super competitive and niche) + the challenges of COVID made my job hunt very, very difficult. However, in the end, I was able to overcome this and secured a full-time product role, which I’m beyond elated. The point of this article is to serve as a quick and informative resource for you to add to your job hunting arsenal of knowledge.
There is no “one size fits all,” guaranteed way to land a job since there are extraneous amounts of variables to consider. While I’m in the tech industry, I wrote this from the perspective of applying to most kinds of jobs. I’ll share some quick Do’s and Don’ts that I’ve learned respectively. Hopefully, these insights are helpful for your job hunt. Here’s a TL;DR:
Do’s
- Be mentally prepared
- Be consistent
- Leverage your network
Don’ts
- Don’t be afraid
- Don’t customize your resume
Be mentally prepared:
I would argue that this is the most important aspect to consider when you’re on your job hunt. The entire process from applying, interviewing, studying, negotiating, etc. is a marathon. You most likely will not get a job overnight, and if you do, well congrats! However, I could bet most of us will not have that experience. Therefore, you must be mentally prepared, but for what specifically? Understand that this process will take some time, weeks, months, sometimes years. Avoid burning yourself out (which sounds easier said than done), but try to understand that this is something you must take a day at a time. Sure, I don’t know what your life situation looks like, but keep in mind to not overstress yourself out too much. It’s natural to feel pressure, and anxiety. I honestly believe it’s healthy to incorporate if moderated correctly because it can motivate you to be more productive. It’s kind of like overclocking yourself (like a CPU), and as a result, you can achieve higher levels of performance.
I was applying to jobs for almost 8+ months, with nearly 300 applications sent. So I fully understand how job hunting can demoralize you and ruin your confidence, especially when you get close a lot. However, I had to change my mindset and understand that this is a process and eventually I will cross the finish line. This shift in mentality played an important role for me to have more confidence in myself.
Takeaway:
- Learn to discipline yourself and understand that the job-hunting process takes time. It’s natural to feel stress, but apply it to yourself in a sustainable way to boost your motivation and drive.
Be consistent:
Similar to the idea of being mentally prepared, you must also have the mindset of consistency. Whether you’re applying online, applying through referrals, etc. you must be consistent in your endeavors of job hunting. While there are certainly fewer opportunities available due to COVID-19, there are STILL opportunities out there. Job hunting is ultimately a number’s game, so accumulating your potential opportunities for jobs will increase the probability that you’ll be selected for an interview. It’s like stock investing, in the context of building your positions over time so that you can receive a greater ROI in the long term. A simple way to get started is setting a daily objective for yourself. I.e apply to X jobs per day. Pace yourself and find roles that you believe you could be a good fit for, don’t just mindlessly apply everywhere.
On average, from what I’ve heard from others, and experiencing it firsthand myself, usually you’ll hear back from a company to have an interview around <=10% (i.e 1/10) of the time. With this in mind, if you apply to 20 places instead of 10, theoretically, you could potentially have ~2 interview opportunities instead of just 1. Having more opportunities creates less stress because when you only have 1 opportunity, you become trapped in this “do-or-die” mindset where you 100% must land that job. At one point, I experienced this “do-or-die” situation and stressed myself way too much, and when I didn’t get it and I was immeasurably disappointed. Then around Sept-Oct, I followed my changed mindset of being consistent, and as a result, I had 7 job opportunities in the pipeline and my stress was lower. I felt more confident in myself because I had more opportunities available. And eventually, the job that I got was from those 7 opportunities.
Takeaways:
- Set a daily goal for yourself, this will help discipline your job-hunting strategy. Create a job spreadsheet to track your jobs and its details.
- Increase your job application volume, this helps increase the probability of getting an interview in the future.
Leverage your network:
Job hunting shouldn’t be a solo activity. Reach out to friends, family, colleagues, classmates, etc. to help increase your chances. I’ve found that most people are willing to take some time out of their day to help you. Networking is such an important skill in today’s “small world,” with how we’re all digitally connected to another in some way. Try to remember certain people who work at X company. Sure, you won’t remember where everyone works, but have a general idea of who’s at what company. Generally speaking, most people are quite nice and open to helping you out and giving you a referral if you ask. And to be clear, not all referrals will instantly grant you an interview opportunity, but it’s better than not having one (disclaimer, the job I got was without a referral).
You’ll never know if you never ask. And honestly, what’s the worst that could happen? Them not giving you a referral/not replying to you? I’ve had plenty of people who have left my initial referral message on read. Sure, it’s a bit awkward getting left on read on your end, and you may lose a bit of your pride, but ultimately, it’s a 5-minute concern and you’re back to your daily life. If you don’t have anyone who works at X company, sometimes you can see who posted the job (on LinkedIn), reach out to the poster. Informational interviewing is a valid strategy. It can definitely help you make a connection for the current situation or for future opportunities.
Takeaway:
- Everyone has a network whether they realize it or not, it doesn’t matter how many people you know, but who you know. Because at the end of the day you just need 1 job, so that one person helping you unlock an opportunity is just a message away, so go for it!
Don’t be afraid:
Following up on the whole idea of leveraging your network, don’t be afraid to ask for help, apply for a job, etc. For me, I struggled with this early on, I was “scared” to apply to certain jobs/companies. I felt insecure about my resume or how I’d match up to the caliber of X company. Even if I felt I was potentially a good fit, I was adamant about applying because I was scared of getting rejected. A friend of mine helped me overcome this mental block and as soon as I threw my insecurities away I got more opportunities because I was increasing my application volume.
Obviously, I’m not saying to apply to a VP-level role if you’re a recent grad. Most places inflate their YOEs or requirements. If you have 0–1 YOE, then apply to places that are 0–3 YOE or even 2–4 YOE, but I wouldn’t apply anything asking for 4+ YOE.
My university isn’t super prestigious, yet schoolmates of mine threw away their insecurities and just applied to the FANGs and got in because their qualifications are what matters most. Sure, having an impressive university brand name will help you, but can only take you so far if you’re underqualified.
Also, reach out to people and ask them if they could help you practice for an upcoming interview or have them give feedback for a take-home assignment. You’ll never know what you can learn from those sessions if you’re afraid to ask for some help.
Takeaway:
- Throw away all of your job hunting insecurities. By removing this mental block you’re increasing your application volume which helps increase potential interview opportunities.
Don’t customize your resume for every single job:
You may spend hours handcrafting your resume, playing around with fonts, the vernacular of your resume points, the layout, etc. but when the recruiters or bots are sorting through the resumes at first glance, they probably don’t recognize the amount of effort you put in, unfortunately. They’re just looking for keywords and eyeballing if you’re good enough to be on the “good pile.” After speaking with numerous recruiters at various information sessions, each of them has their own style of picking out resumes, but the consensus is that when they’re initially looking at you, they’ll spend at most 5–6 secs.
Imagine you spending hours customizing your resumes for certain jobs and companies, only to have your hard work barely recognized within 5–6 seconds. As I mentioned earlier, job hunting is a numbers game, and for time efficiency's sake, you’re better off creating a well-rounded resume for a particular position and using that to apply at scale. If you have some killer resume design for a particular company (i.e Spotify themed resume) then sure, go for it, but I wouldn’t recommend doing that for every single company you’re applying to. I have friends who have got into big names companies such as Google and Bloomberg, but didn’t use a company-themed resume.
Takeaway:
- It’s a better opportunity cost to apply at scale rather than customizing every resume for a particular company. Job hunting is a numbers game. If you’re applying for multiple roles (i.e product manager, project manager, software engineer) then have 3 resumes, one for each job-type.
Conclusion:
Looking for a new role in the world of COVID-19 is stressful, however, I sincerely hope these insights helped motivate you and taught you something new. The mental aspect is extremely important, so make sure to structure your journey and pace yourself with consistency.
I’d love to hear any job hunting tips you may have, please share in the comments below. I’m sure it will be valuable for others who read it.
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Artwork: myself
