New Rules for Getting a Job During the Coronavirus Pandemic

realistic about location. There are many companies worth work from home policies right now, but that is constantly changing. You must also be prepared for a completely virtual interview process. Katherine Dial, reporter at the Wall Street Journal, joins us for how to get a job in the COVID era. Thanks for joining us, Katherine, thanks for having me. Since the pandemic hit the US, there's been millions and millions of jobs lost. The economy is not doing too well

in that regard. There's just as many people on unemployment receiving unemployment benefits, but there are some industries there are people that are still hiring. And Katherine, you wrote an article about the new rules for landing a job in the COVID era. So I want to take a look at some of that, Katherine, what do we know about some new rules on how to do this? Well, we know that we're looking at a time where the playbook that job seekers look at has sort of been thrown

out the window. You know, we're seeing in some ways the need to dig way into the things that we always tell job seekers. You know, networking is really important, articulating your goals, all of that has become paramount. But then beyond that, they need to be prepared for things like an entirely virtual interview and potentially on boarding process, getting ready to really slice and dice which parts of

an industry they should be focusing their search on. It's a tough time for job seekers, but there are some reasons to be optimistic. Let's start picking these apart a little bit. Networking, obviously, everybody knows you should always kind of be networking, but it's more important than ever. You were talking to some people at LinkedIn and they said that more people are finding jobs through referrals now, more

than ever. Applicants on their platform are three times as likely to get a job at a company where they have a connection. And you know, we see this all the time people hire people, but especially in a downturn, that really becomes the name of the game. And so for a lot of people that means rethinking your network. It means getting back in touch with people you may be worked with two jobs ago and catching up with them.

For younger people or for entry level workers, it might mean, you know, thinking about who have you done volunteer work with, who have you taken classes with? You really have to look broadly across your network at who you might want to reconnect with and consider that you know, they might not be able to hire you, but getting back in

touch with them and catching up might leave them. You know, it might trigger they know somebody who they've heard is looking for someone with your skill set, and so really taking a new eye to your network is going to be essential. And an important note I think that you put in your article when you are reconnecting with somebody, say, you know, just kind of putting the feelers out there. Try not to be frustrating, did and cranking impatient with those people. Like you said, they might not be able

to hire you, but they can lead you somewhere. And if you just lost a job and you're frustrated, take a step back so that you don't come across the name. Definitely, definitely, you know, it's totally understandable. I mean, nobody wants to be the person reminding somebody who's just been laid off from their job. Please be patient, be calm. You know, like your bills and your rent aren't usually being patient with you. So it's totally understandable to feel this way.

But you do want to think about the impression that you're giving an offense. It's just as simple as taking time to reread your messages. Take a step back, take a time and a break, come back and look at your message again. Just make sure that you're you know, you're presenting the best version of yourself that you would want somebody to come across. And also there's you know, everyone we spoke was noted an uptick and empathy right

now among people hiring, among people networking. You know, everybody understands what's going on and they want to help the next one right here. Be flexible and realistic about location. There's been a ton of increases in jobs that you can do remotely. Um, they're not always on remote jobs. Sometimes you know, there's a percentage that you might start remotely and then as this as things get better with

the pandemic, you'll go back to work. But that's important to take into account because you know you can't live a hundred miles away from your job if you're eventually going to have to go back, right The key here is just to be really really clear. We are seeing companies who are hiring showing really increased flexibility around us.

You know, they need talent now, and that talent might they know that that talent might need to move to where you know, a family member can provide childcare, or where a partner is going to have an easier time finding work. Like, we are seeing some more flexibility from companies, but you are going to want to be really up front.

You know, just because you're a hundred percent remote right now and for the foreseeable future, you still need to guarantee that that job is a hundred percent remote and that they won't expect you to be in Santa Fe on a given day when you move to Maine. This next one might be the most important thing to be prepared for a one virtual interview process. You know you can't step foot in the door until you've gone through this step, and you know, you have to do a

lot of things to be prepared to stand out. Maybe do a test call to make sure you look the best you possibly can. Definitely, you know, make sure your tech is working certainly, you know, prepas maybe with a friend the day before your interview. You know, we recommend dress as you would dress to go to an in person interview. You know, now is not the time just because you're in your living room, maybe to wear a

sweatshirt to the interview. But then also you need to be cognizant of things like you have to bring a higher level of energy to a zoom interview than you would if you were in the room with somebody and

picking up on lots of subtle cues. And we also had somebody who actually was laid off and landed a job again earlier the summer mentioned that he had gone through his resume and figured out he had teed up some anecdotes like that illustrated experiences he had had so that he wasn't just on this video interview like going through the bullets of his resume, he had a way of really bringing his experiences to life for the people

on the other end. You got to stand out more than ever on these And the last question for this is, you know, you have to zero in on who is hiring. Obviously there's all sorts of industries are up and down right now, but where are people hiring the most. We are seeing that healthcare, retail, and food service are the ones that had the most job openings in the US at the beginning of August. Finance, insurance, construction, and real

estate business services not as much. But an important thing to really think about is that there's a great deal of variation of performance even within an industry. So in tech, for example, which is doing better than a lot of other industries, if you are a company that's a startup focused on business travel, you're probably having a really tough

time right now. But if you're a company that's focused on e commerce delivery a lot of those services, you're probably really hiring a lot and struggling to even meet capacity. So there's a lot of variation even within industries, and some experts recommend that it's actually just better to make yourself a list of companies that are doing really well and focus on them well. The good news is that some are hiring. You just gotta work a little harder

at it to land that job. There's a few more tips and tricks in Catherine's article, so I suggest everybody go out and take a look at it. Katherine Dill, reporter at the Wall Street Journal, thank you very much for joining us. Thanks for having me. I'm Oscar Ramirez and this has been reopening America. Don't forget effort today's big news stories. You can check me out on the Daily Dive podcast every Monday through Friday. So follow us on I Heart Radio or wherever you get your podcast.