It’s important to keep in mind that even with vaccines and the struggles of the pandemic fading away, the notion of a “normal work day” is still a long way off. For many organizations, the lessons and infrastructure built in 2020 will be baked into their operations long into the future.
This means that people making career transitions will have to adapt to new standards. What worked before may be very different now. To help you prepare, here are a few ways that job-hunting will be different in the years to come than what you may be used to - and advice on how to adapt.
Recruiting Will Be More Automated
As remote work becomes a widely-accepted mainstay of the corporate world, companies are shifting to a hiring model designed for remote workers. This means talent can come from anywhere in the world. From a company standpoint, this makes things a lot more complicated.
To simplify the process, expect recruitment efforts to rely even more on automation and AI. Companies already frequently use applicant tracking systems to scan resumes for keywords, but soon we may see automated systems in the interview stages as well.
Helen Oswald
When you ask for information about a position or a company, it’s increasingly likely you’ll be speaking with a chatbot - and that your chats may be scanned for keywords. Pre-recorded interview processes are becoming more and more common as well.
How do you adapt to this new reality?
Customize Your Materials: It’s now more important than ever to make sure your application materials match the position you’re applying for. It’s also crucial to make sure your resume is ATS-friendly. Using Career.io tools to tune your resume can help with this.
Prepare for the Basics: In a pre-recorded interview, you can assume with relative safety that you won’t be facing questions that are overly complex. Automation can typically only be used for common questions like “Tell me about yourself” and “Why would you be a good fit for this position?”
Because these are the most common questions, they’re also the easiest to prepare for in advance. You can talk to your Career.io career coach about how to address these questions.
Helen Oswald
Find the Human Element: Even if the basic tasks are automated, there are still real live people at all levels of the process. In fact, having their “grunt work” taken care of by machine should give them more availability for facetime.
Find recruiters who are making an effort to maintain personal connections with candidates. Make it a point to maintain these relationships through follow-ups and updates. Social media like LinkedIn can help you use your own automation to help with this.
Criteria and Standards Will Change
Career experts are predicting a shift in hiring standards, focusing less on job titles and degrees, but more on transferable skills like adaptability, problem solving, and collaboration.
This is good news for professionals looking to make a larger career change and potentially enter a new field altogether. Whatever skills you pride yourself on should be evident in your resume and any other application materials.
The best way to demonstrate your skills, as usual, is by using STAR stories which show the skills in action. If you want to brand yourself as a problem solver, start by telling stories of problems you’ve solved. If you want to push your creativity, then document creative solutions you’ve developed.
Part-Time Arrangements Will Be Popular - So Will Temporary Ones
As many households adjusted to virtual schooling and a lack of available caregivers, many companies started rethinking their “flexible hours” packages into offering part-time arrangements in positions they never would have considered before.
Following a month where women accounted for all of the nations’ net job losses, it’s clear that “flexibility” is not as flexible as planned. For working parents, especially working mothers, part time arrangements such as a four-day work week can be seen as engagement and retention tools.
On the flip side, uncertain economic conditions mean companies tend to rely more on freelance, temporary, or contract hires. Expect to see many more job postings under these categories.
There are pros and cons to temporary or contract work. The biggest drawback is the lack of stability - and often, the lack of insurance or other benefits. However, contract roles do often turn into permanent roles, and freelancing is a good way to strengthen your skill set or build your portfolio - especially if you’re looking to break into a new industry.
Be realistic about your time constraints and up-front about your intentions when starting with a new company. If your goal is to join permanently, let employers know. If your time needs a non-standard arrangement, be honest about that as well. There are many possibilities out there.
