The crisis is slowly moving to the next phase, employees are taking their first tentative steps back to work and trying to remember a time when they had a set routine and could converse with someone other than their pets.
Meanwhile employers are surveying the damage, assessing the marketplace and wondering what they can and should do to get back to business as usual or a new normal!
Part of this process will be looking at the remaining workforce and seeing what gaps need to be filled.
This is where you as a candidate need to have been making plans.
You rock up to your first interview, likely to be on Zoom/Teams. For the first time in a long time you’re seeing someone, as you wait to be called into the chat room to discuss your job history and what you have to offer going forward. They let you in to the virtual room. You compose yourself as the trice of managers assembled behind computer screens look through you resumé. After a brief pause one of them looks straight at you and says, “so what have you been up to for the last 1-3 months?”
Is your answer going to be:
“Watching re-runs of Friends and consuming my body weight in crisps and Vimto whist trying to remember the last time I showered and changed my clothes.”
Or might it be?
I set up a weekly schedule so that I could make the best use of my time. This included
- Household chores
- Walking the dog
- Checking the job boards to see what was available
- Physical exercise
- Volunteering to pick up groceries for an elderly neighbour
- Enrolling in an online course so I could keep my skills up to date.
All of this may seem obvious to you now, but it’s surprising how easily lethargy can creep in when we don’t have a routine and a reason to get out of bed in the morning.
It has been a good time to start a new project, learn a new language and either start to get fit or maintain your current level.
It’s not going to be easy for anyone looking for work, but I do know that there’ll suddenly be an influx of positions to be filled when this is all over.
So the choice is yours!
Do you want to stride into the interview room brimming with confidence that during this time you’ve been: Productive, Disciplined and Industrious?
Or are you going to creep in, head bowed, hoping they haven’t noticed the egg stains on your top?
My advice would be to keep a log of the great things you are doing and have done. If it’s painting the house… Great, picking up prescriptions for the elderly…Even better.
Take some pics, make some notes and have your checklist ready.
From myself and the rest of the Cooper Golding team: Stay healthy, Stay positive and look after one another.
