Job Hunting in the Age of Coronavirus
It's become a habit already. First thing in the morning getting on my computer and looking at the myriad of job ads online. It's a habit that got engrained a few months before we heard of the coronavirus -- although not maybe it was beginning to wind its destructive path around the globe.
It was November, and I lost the job I had held for two years. A job that seemed like a perfect one: freelance (yet more than half-time hours) writer and copy editor for a publication. (If anyone has any ideas about a job to replace it, please let me know!) Then the position evaporated -- to what degree through my fault, and to what degree not. But it was gone. For a while I had other sporadic freelance work -- some from long-standing clients.
Then coronavirus attacked. The articles I was working on that were about dated events? The events got canceled or postponed indefinitely. A play of mine about to open in production was put off for at least a few months. A nonprofit I just started working for put everything on hold except serving its direct clients. And on and on.
But till. Every morning I get up -- whether it's 5:30 a.m. or 8 -- open the computer and start looking at job ads. After a while you begin to realize that the same jobs appear over and over. Someone explained, and is probably right, that the companies had taken had months advertising space and still have time to go. Maybe they're just fishing. I actually got responses from a few of them, but those are the one that have appeared only once or twice.
My favorite response though, was from a freelance, remote job -- these are always premium during a pandemic. It said that they had received a huge number of responses. That's pretty common to hear. But that if I haven't heard back after 180 days, I should feel free to write to them again.
I don't know how anyone else feels about this, but I'm sure hoping that by the time the 180 days after roll around, they'll be in my rear-view mirror, and I'll be in the driver's seat in another job.
Good luck if you're job hunting! And may coronavirus soon be in our collective rear-view mirrors.
It was November, and I lost the job I had held for two years. A job that seemed like a perfect one: freelance (yet more than half-time hours) writer and copy editor for a publication. (If anyone has any ideas about a job to replace it, please let me know!) Then the position evaporated -- to what degree through my fault, and to what degree not. But it was gone. For a while I had other sporadic freelance work -- some from long-standing clients.
Then coronavirus attacked. The articles I was working on that were about dated events? The events got canceled or postponed indefinitely. A play of mine about to open in production was put off for at least a few months. A nonprofit I just started working for put everything on hold except serving its direct clients. And on and on.
But till. Every morning I get up -- whether it's 5:30 a.m. or 8 -- open the computer and start looking at job ads. After a while you begin to realize that the same jobs appear over and over. Someone explained, and is probably right, that the companies had taken had months advertising space and still have time to go. Maybe they're just fishing. I actually got responses from a few of them, but those are the one that have appeared only once or twice.
My favorite response though, was from a freelance, remote job -- these are always premium during a pandemic. It said that they had received a huge number of responses. That's pretty common to hear. But that if I haven't heard back after 180 days, I should feel free to write to them again.
I don't know how anyone else feels about this, but I'm sure hoping that by the time the 180 days after roll around, they'll be in my rear-view mirror, and I'll be in the driver's seat in another job.
Good luck if you're job hunting! And may coronavirus soon be in our collective rear-view mirrors.