Finding a job during the COVID-19 pandemic

Introduction and general premise

This summer was the first time in my life that I truly had to engage with the recruitment process while unemployed. Overall it was an incredibly frustrating experience that I would not like to find myself in again. Having recently found employment after a three-month search, I have every sympathy with those who are still searching. I hope you all find something soon. 

This post should achieve four things. 

1. Layout what my greatest frustrations were as a job seeker. 

2. Explain what makes a good recruiter.

3. Explain what traps to avoid as a job seeker. 

4. What you should do to avoid said mistakes.

Frustrations with the job searching process

Frustration 1 - Misleading job openings

The first of these job searching frustrations are job searching sites like LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, and many many more. The first of these is that a lot of jobs that are advertised as new jobs, are in fact, not new jobs. When I first started looking I was encouraged by how many roles were advertised in the last 1-7 days. I understandably thought, "great, I will be one of the early applicants, that is bound to help." But, after weeks of searching, I started to notice that many jobs I had applied for weeks earlier were starting to get advertised again, as "brand new roles in your area". I quickly realized that many of the roles I had been applying for, were not new and that I was getting mislead by such websites for many weeks. This is frustrating as one might spend a long time preparing their C.V for a role and the role is no longer available. 

I can't help but also expect that many of the roles on such websites, simply do not exist, but rather firms are looking to get lots of C.V's into their database incase a similar role comes up in the future. 

Frustration 2 - Unrealistic job descriptions and automated job scanners

The second frustration is how jobs are described as entry roles but ask for 3-5 years of experience. Recent graduates will most likely be applying for entry-level roles. By default, they do not have 3-5 years of experience in information systems, sales, marketing, accounting, or whatever your firm wants. In recent weeks I saw one job description ask for five years of experience with a particular software that has only existed for two years. If you as a firm are demanding, five years of experience from a recent graduate, the firm should be paying wages as if someone actually has the five years of experience. A recent graduate won't have that level of experience, so stop asking them for it or pay up. 

Anyone who has done a lot of job searching recently will know that matching your C.V to the job description is key to getting past the automated scanners and having your C.V looked at by a person. I have spent hours over the last few months, rewriting my C.V for job descriptions. I always did this in an honest manner. But, I know many do not do this in an honest matter, and I can't blame anyone for that. It is easy to get very frustrated getting rejected immediately for roles you could do, just because of a few keywords that are not on your C.V. Companies miss out on a lot of great applicants due to these automated scanners. 

I have been told, what many people do is, they take a job description, go to the end of the C.V, write down all the keywords and phrases from the job description. Then make the font as small as possible and put the text in white. Your C.V looks as it should but you have all the keywords to get past the automated scanners? Is this ethical? Probably not, but if an applicant is desperate to work, is qualified for the work they have applied for, and has had countless applications turned down, who can really blame them? 

Frustration 3 - No feedback from online questionnaires

Many companies ask interviewees to complete many questionnaires. They often revolve around getting a sense of one's personality and testing one's ability to figure out mathematical/logical based questions. These are perfectly understandable and nobody would question why they are used. What is frustrating is that many companies never tell you if you fail it and if they do it is an instant computer generated result. Again this is somewhat understandable. The trouble is, is that interviewees are often given no feedback of where they went wrong, which makes it difficult to improve one's chances in the future. 

The only way to improve one's changes is to look up the answers. This is especially relevant for questions trying to gauge a candidate's personality type. The harsh reality is that if one wants to get interviewed, one must give the right answers and not the honest ones. If you are asked, "how well do you deal with stressful situations?", one will naturally select "very well" and not "badly". One can look up online and learn how to answer these questions. This defeats the whole purpose of "personality gauging" as nobody is answering honestly. 

I belive that such personalty questionnaires should not be used as they are not answered honestly and therefore tell a firm little about the candidate for interview. Questionnaires that try to gauge personalities are a waste of time for both the firm and the candidate. 

Frustration 4 - Getting turned down as you are overqualified

Disclaimer - If someone is underqualified fair enough. 

If someone applies for your job and you turn them down as they are "overqualified." Let's remember a few things. Nobody enjoys interviewing for jobs, nobody enjoys filling out forms and writing cover letter after cover letter. Nobody enjoys sneaking off at lunchtime or worse again, being unemployed. Job hunting is time-consuming and job postings are plentiful. If someone has taken the time to fill out the forms with your job posting, they are interested in the role. You, as the employer do not know their story or their motivations yet. Who are you to say, they are "overqualified" for the role? Especially during a global pandemic. 

Dismissing people out of hand for being overqualified is a narrowminded approach. There will always be the fear that somebody may leave a role, but if you have a chance to get a highly qualified individual into your firm on wages well below the level of wages they could get elsewhere they are probably very excited about your project. Said people should be at least interviewed and given a chance to explain their motivations. 

Frustration 5 - Empty promises from recruiters and employed individuals

As a job-seeker, this was my greatest frustration. Far too often on LinkedIn, I saw those in employment and especially recruiters offer help to those unemployed. Such posts would go along the lines of "If anyone needs any help finding work, please get in touch. I would love to help you because what I really care about is people." 

I would say, if you are going to offer people advice, offer to meet them in person or exchange a few messages with them, please actually do it. While some meant it, I found while job searching that most writing such posts, had no intentions of following through on their public LinkedIn post. 

It is disingenuous to see people using the pandemic as a way of improving their own personal brand in public but offering little of substance in private. This is a very dishonest act and incredibly cruel to those unemployed, looking for work and trying to feed their families. When one is unemployed, it is a very frustrating, tiring and even embarrassing period. 

Please don't give false hope. Realise that right now, a lot of people are looking for work and if you offer to help, please actually do so. Realise you may get a 100 plus messages/emails. If you are not prepared to answer these messages, please don't fill up people's timelines with false promises. Job seeking websites are already wasting enough of their time. 

If you have any genuine advice you would like to share, and don't have time to answer each person individually, write a long post or article explaining it to people. 

Frustration 6 - Not advertising the wage

This is a simple one, don't let applicants complete many interviews without telling them the wage. Finding a role should be about not just finding the right person for the company, but the right company for their person and their family. Companies need to be upfront about what a job is paying from the start. It is unfair to make someone spend weeks completing interviews preparing for a role only to find out that the role does not pay enough. Companies want to know every little detail about applicants, companies need to start sharing what you are willing to pay to said applicants. Let's be honest it is one of, if not the most important detail for an applicant. 

Lastly, I think we need to normalize companies compensating individuals who apply to their company and don't get the role and have gone deep into the hiring process. In 2018, I completed five interviews for a role and was rejected at the final stage. Over the month period, I gave up many evenings including two whole weekends preparing case studies, doing language exams, and presentations. In the end, I was just sent a 15-word email, thanking me for my time. I easily spent 30-40 hours preparing for those interviews. If someone is spending that much time working to be part of your firm, they should be given 200-300 euros as compensation for their time. 

What makes a good recruiter

I have found that recruiters who made a positive impression on me, did some very simple but effective things. I was recently dealing with two amazing recruiters. They were great for several reasons. 

1. They listened to what I was looking for in a role and came up with solutions. 

2. When they did not have the right answer, they went and found the information.

3. They checked in with me before and after interviews. 

4. They were quick to answer emails and messages. They explained why if they did not. 

5. They got feedback from interviews already completed. 

6. They read my C.V before ringing me at first. They also made sure they had their facts right. (

I had one recruiter tell me recently that he/she could not take me on, as I did not do an IT degree. I have just completed a masters in information technology and information systems. They clearly did not even read the first line of the C.V. 

7. Most importantly the best recruiters actually did, what they said they would do. 

8. They make you feel like they care about you and your career. 

Before starting my search, I would have thought that these principles would be a minimum requirements of a recruiting role. Over the last three months, I spoke with about 10-12 recruiters and most failed to even fulfil two of the above requirements. 

Traps to avoid as a jobseeker

From my own experience, if you get an interview with a company you are already halfway in the door already. The majority of candidates are not even given that, as interviews are very time consuming and heavy on resources for firms. If you get an interview, the firm already really likes the idea of you. The main challenge is getting that first interview. Here are things to avoid, if you want to get that first interview. 

1. Wasting lots of time looking at jobs sites.

2. Handing up the same C.V for every single job.

3. Poor standard of C.V.

4. Applying for jobs that do not exist.

5. Lazy attitude with forms and cover letter. 

6. Applying for multiple jobs with the same firms. 

Avoiding the traps of the jobseeker

1. It is really easy to waste a lot of time of jobs websites. If you do not have a very particular job title in mind, one can spend hours reading job descriptions and wondering if you are qualified or not. Most job descriptions make a job sound a lot more complicated than it actually is. I would advise looking at websites such as LinkedIn, Indeed and Monster to get a sense of what is out there, but not much more. Once your C.V is ready and you have a good understanding of what you want, find yourself a good recruiter. This, of course, is easier said than done, but once you do, it will be the best decision you make during your job search. 

Recruiters are a great help because they have a lot of connections and a lot more information than one can find online about open roles. If recruiters did not make a difference like some may believe, they would have gone the way of travel agents long ago. 

2. As already mentioned, having the keywords on a job description is a vital step to getting noticed. Do what you can to make sure that terms relavnat to the role are on your C.V. For example, if you are applying for a marketing role you should have words like marketing, analytics, sales and social media on your C.V whenever possible. All the time, you continue to be honest..

3. This is pretty standard advice. Make your your C.V is no more than two pages, easy to understand and it is really clear what you have achieved. If you can include numbers it is a great help. For example, "improved company sales by 30% over a 12 month period."

4. THIS ONE IS HUGE. I wasted a lot of time this summer, applying for jobs on websites such as Linkedin. It took me a long time to learn how to spot what adds were actually genuine. Rememeber that;

    A: Many jobs on such websites do not exist and companies are simply looking to get C.Vs in case such a role appears in the future. 

    B: Many advertised jobs have already been filled and nobody has taken the advertisment down. Yes, even LinkedIn or another job seeking site tells you it is a new role. 

    C: Especially in bigger firms, many roles are already filled by employees already at the firm. 

Before applying, check if you can find the job advertised on the company website and see how old the advertisement is. Most job adds have an id attached to them. What you can also do is send your C.V directly to the hiring manager mentioned. Tell them you are interested in the role. 

If you can't find a contact person at the firm, you can't find the job on the company website and there is is no mention of the recruitment agency, there is likely no job to start with, unless it is grad role. Why, reference A, B & C above. If you need a job ASAP, don't waste your time filling out forms on these "empty job openings."

  

5. Let's get straight to the point. Before this summer I thought cover letters were a waste of time. I was completely wrong. This summer I applied for around 100 jobs and about 70 of those did not have a cover letter. I did not get a single response. I wrote around 30 cover letters and got 7-8 responses. If you make the effort to write a good cover letter, it shows the firm that you really care and want the role. I know it is time subsuming, but it will help you stand out straight away. If you are not writing a cover letter, you are wasting your time. 

6. Applying for many roles within the same firm was another thing that I never thought would have been a big deal in a negative sense. Sadly, firms don't like it when you apply for multiple roles with them. It tells the recruiter that you are unsure of where your career is going and that you don't know what you want from your career. Nobody wants a confused candidate that is unsure if they even want the job or not. 

I hope this post was a help to you, either as a recruiter or job seeker.