From remote job searching to carving out your post-Covid role, here are some tips to help your career.
Covid-19 has transformed how we work and things may continue to shift for the foreseeable future. Put your best foot forward by learning how to deal with remote job interviews, Zoom fatigue, changing job remits and more.
1. How to ace remote job interviews
The Covid-19 pandemic pushed us into an era of remote working and, for some, it looks like it’s here to stay. Many businesses such as Google have already announced plans to continue working remotely until at least next year, while others including Siemens and Fujitsu have introduced more permanent hybrid arrangements.
We’ve undeniably learned a huge amount adjusting to new ways of working over the past few months. For people in HR and recruitment, for example, hiring and onboarding has had to move online. With many offices remaining closed, remote job interviews may continue for some time. So what do candidates need to think about?
I spoke to Modern Hire’s Mike Hudy to learn more. He advised showing enthusiasm on video calls and brushing up on your communication skills, among other things.
2. How to stand out while job hunting
If you’ve gotten to the remote interview stage, that’s great. But like many other things, job searching has been made more complicated by Covid-19. As Hays’ Jane Donnelly puts it, it’s an unsettling time for people setting out on a job hunt.
To help, Donnelly and her colleagues at Hays shared some advice for anyone looking for a new job during the pandemic. Their tips include being open to different opportunities, updating your LinkedIn and adopting an agile mindset.
3. How to carve out your post-Covid role
Now that many of us have settled into our new routines, you might be starting to think about how your job might change again. Maybe your role has evolved during Covid-19 to incorporate duties you now enjoy and that reflect your long-term career goals.
Or maybe workplace changes have forced you to take on tasks that aren’t aligned with your career, and you just want to go back to your pre-Covid job. Either way, Hays’ Jane McNeill is confident you can shape your role moving forward with these tips here.
4. How to assess the hats you wear
On the topic of taking on extra duties at work, a recent survey from ZenBusiness looked at how many additional roles US employees tend to take on beyond their official job remit.
The results suggested that, on average, workers can be responsible for up to 2.3 extra roles beyond their brief, while one in four respondents said they had been given more duties on the back of Covid-19.
Of the employees surveyed, younger people were more likely to view additional work as unfair but, overall, 84pc of participants said they viewed extra duties as necessary sometimes.
5. How to navigate Zoom fatigue
One of the technologies that has become a staple for many people during Covid-19 is video conferencing. It has helped dispersed teams communicate effectively and business will likely continue to rely on it going forward.
But an important thing to bear in mind while using video conferencing on a regular basis is the concept of Zoom fatigue, as video calls can be tiring and are even linked to mental exhaustion.
So, to avoid burnout as we continue working remotely, doing our best to minimise Zoom fatigue should be a priority. In this piece, UCD researchers Andrew Hines and Pheobe Sun discuss three areas you can focus on.
6. How to switch careers
It might seem counterintuitive to rethink your career during a pandemic, but the National Recruitment Federation’s Geraldine King said that it’s a good time to take stock. Some people have been laid off due to Covid-19 while others might have more time on their hands to pick up new skills or assess their job satisfaction.
Whatever the case, a conversion course could be a viable next move. Eimear Galligan, a software engineer at Zalando in Ireland, did one to move from primary school teaching to technology. This week, she told us why “tech wasn’t always on the radar” for her, but how a conversion course helped her get started once she’d changed her mind.
7. How to work towards better diversity and inclusion
Though we have certainly made strides in some aspects of diversity and inclusion, we still have plenty more to do. Covid-19 hasn’t changed that, even though offices may still be closed and teams may be dispersed. In Ireland, companies have been working on resource groups, programmes, workplace facilities and more.
Something employers may need to prioritise, however, is finding and implementing better practices than blanket solutions such as implicit or unconscious bias training. I spoke to NUI Galway’s Dr Chris Noone about its pitfalls and what new initiatives will need to focus on, now and in the future.
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