How I Conquered the Corona Career Struggle

The overwhelming apparency of capitalism’s risky resilience during a national pandemic has everyone struggling to maintain making ends meet while simultaneously successfully social distancing. It feels impossible to secure a job, and once you get one there is a whole new set of procedures to be taken in order to ensure clinical safety. This is my personal perspective about getting a job during a pandemic.

First of all, the struggle is real when it comes to searching for employment when half the country is out of work. Most businesses are letting workers go instead of hiring, and the shift hours available are extremely limited. I applied everywhere on every application site I could find. I tried LinkedIn, Glassdoor, ZipRecruiter, and Google searches alike, but it seemed like every position a college student could qualify for was filled. Funnily enough, my stepmom stumbled upon a small miracle, and she ended up finding me an opportunity through a random Facebook post one of her friends had screenshotted!

She needed someone to help her bedazzle face masks she was selling for the pandemic, which sounds easy enough but ended up being time-consuming and very hard work. At first, when I sent her my resume, I sent the copy I would send out the same copy I would have sent to any restaurant or retail store. It had nothing to do with any of the skills she needed from an employee, even though I have experience with sewing machines and hot stones from working in a theatre costume shop.

I didn’t even think to put that on there because it was during high school! Luckily, she called and asked if I had a relevant skill set to her line of work, and I got to mention it during the interview. This is where the advice comes in… No matter how small a skill you have may seem, put it on your resume. In these tough times, you need every leg up you can get! Keep your resume up to date and relevant to the position you are applying to. Don’t assume your resume from last year is going to cut it now. 

We grow and change so much, even when we don’t notice. Talents that we overlook in ourselves can become key to the next steps we take! I hope this helps a few of you when applying for jobs, and I hope our Her Campus team is helping to make the hiring scene more approachable with this week’s career feature!

  

 

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