Job Hunting in a Pandemic

I’ll be honest, I have prepared many drafts for this upcoming year for job seekers. In early March, when Coronavirus was just hitting the United States, I prepared a blog about what to do to keep yourself safe from the coronavirus. On March 11 when I heard about Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, and Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert got the coronavirus, I had to scrap my draft.

Since then, the coronavirus is spreading rapidly throughout the United States which forces most people to stay home and many businesses to have to restructure, which include employees working remotely, layoffs, and furloughs. This means there will be fewer open positions and for some, they do not have the necessary tools to be able to work remotely from home.

This is where The HR SOURCE will give you advice about what to do in this situation. Truth be told, we are experiencing this for the first time and most businesses are dealing with a pandemic for the first time as well. We are all scrambling to see what’s next.

First and foremost, currently, we need to stay home and stay healthy. For some, this might be difficult because you are used to being active, but we must flatten the curve by staying in for 8-10 weeks. COVID-19 is contagious and will not stop spreading until we do our jobs by staying home during that timeframe. If you feel lonely, there are plenty of ways that you can interact with others via social media and video meetings like Zoom, Google Hangouts, Blue Jeans, Facebook Messenger, and others.

If you’re in the job market, there are opportunities out there, but you must make sacrifices that are outside your norm. Today, chains like Amazon, Walmart, and grocery stores are hiring workers to help stock shelves and deal with customer service. In addition, restaurants are using takeout and delivery services like GrubHub, Doordash, Uber Eats, and others to deliver foods at home. You can be a driver for one of those companies.

There are also freelancing sites like UpWork, Flexjobs, and others you can do the same work you have done over your career that you can do at home. In addition, there are some companies, including ours, that are looking for contract or full-time positions you can do remotely.

This pandemic will not be resolved immediately. It will not be resolved until the virus is under control which means that we must each do our part by staying home so hospitals and healthcare workers do not get overloaded. Your health is the most important thing right now and we hope after this is all over, there will be a sense of normalcy for everyone.

Tracy Tran is a Sourcer and Social Media Specialist for The HR SOURCE.

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