Coronavirus: Setting the Stage for Your Second Act
The post-COVID workplace will look different. Your career could, too.
One of the most widely-felt facets of COVID fallout is the collateral job loss experienced by 36 million or more Americans. As a bank worker, I can personally advise that this has introduced a great deal of stress into the lives of many. But if we can take our eyes off of the short-term for a short time, we just might be able to anticipate something in the offing:
Recruiters are about to have a field day.
And I say this fully knowing (anecdotally, at least) that more than a handful of those furloughed due to COVID are under (in some cases less-than-official) agreements to be reinstated in their positions once it is safe to do so. But these agreements, like any, involve two people. And I want to bring everyone — employees and employers alike — in on an important secret: Just because someone has a job waiting for them doesn’t mean they’ll want it back.
In other words: Once we can go outside, we don’t all need to go back to working where we did before we got sent home.
And, to be honest, it might not even need to wait for restrictions to ease. People are getting comfortable working from home — or, at least, getting used to it. And why shouldn’t they? Ike was great and all, but when given the choice between sitting on the highway and sitting in one’s sweatpants, I’m sure most of us would take the latter. And, sure, people will miss the amenities of the office — but people also innovate, and I for one wouldn’t be surprised if the next big thing were to be remote, pan-company, local shared-office spaces with all the bells and whistles that were once a nightmare-commute away but are now within biking distance.
(Oh, and people also usually like to spend time with their families. Almost missed that; we often do.)
But there’s more to it than that; I think COVID is giving people the time and space to think not only about where they plant their office, but where they get their paychecks. It sure has for me — a 23-year-old multiple-transfer undergrad juggling his time between classes and a job in a call center. Enter COVID, and all of a sudden that 23-year-old has enough time to realize that he doesn’t like his job, he isn’t too hot on school as a means to his goals (you’d have thought I would have realized it might not be for me after the 4th major, but alas), and he only ever got this job to put him through school. Do a little math… and I’m looking for a new job. (Not in a call center.)
And I’m not the only one. We can even look at my (newly) beloved LinkedIn: a 15 million jump in users, a 26% rise in active usage, and “record levels of engagement” according to notes from Microsoft’s recent Q3 report. A lot of people are doing the math. And the numbers just might come up greener on the other side of the (post-modern) office park.
Which leads me to my call to employers. Times, they are a-changing. And I’m hoping a lot of people will grow tired of trying to sell themselves to you; in fact, I think it’s about time that you sold yourself to us. I don’t know about everyone else, but I can smell a copy/pasted job posting a mile away:
When saving this screenshot, I chose the title, “thegreatestwall”; you would think it was, based on the way some job postings use text. (Though admittedly not all postings — and yet marketing agencies should really know how to reel people in, right?) But what might be even worse is the very first line of the description: “Join Brafton’s Creative Marketing Team and…” Hang on, sorry, I don’t speak Unicode.
But don’t think that your use of bullet-points make you any better. “If you are X, then we would love to hear from you!” has become such standard fare that I’m starting to wonder if they would love to hear from me in the way that I would be happy to help you back in the call center.
And it’s not just the recruiters. I want to see a generation of job-seeking professionals who bring a new attitude to interviews.
Yoga time. Everybody here close your eyes and take a deep breath. Meditate on the words “Basic Qualifications.” What do you feel in your body when you hear those words? Tense shoulders? Sweaty palms? A turning stomach? Well then, have I got news for you: That person across the desk is not interrogating you; they’re courting you. You are being given the opportunity to put yourself on blast for much longer than most people are willing to listen to someone talk about themself, and all they are doing is making a decision based on what they see and hear. That’s it. You be you, and they go from there. And you are more than a degree. Sounds a lot better, doesn’t it?
I believe in this to the extent that I want this generation to be willing to take no. They didn’t want you? Great! What makes you think you wanted them? You showed them who you are, and they decided that you weren’t what they wanted. (Or did you put on the mask you thought they wanted to see?) Are you so obsessed with getting a job that you’ll take the first one that says yes? Have some dignity! If you’re going to be spending 40 hours a week doing it (…or is that cliche going to change, too?), maybe that should be in a mutual environment — not a dominant one.
But, Nick, I hear you say. You’re trying to encourage us to follow our dreams and explore new careers. What do you mean you want us to get comfortable with hearing “no”?! Dig deep. Find your chutzpah. Get up, brush yourself off, and try again. Take some advice from my good friend Abe:
And ask yourself which is going to do more damage: Hearing someone tell you “No” along the road to your dreams, or being so afraid of that “No” that you never start down the road in the first place?
Maybe I’m an odd case. It would probably be remiss of me to omit that my dream career is being an actor. And, true, most of us don’t have a reputation for financial stability or anything like that. But the more I think about it, the clearer it becomes that I’m looking for something else, something more than six figures and a picket fence. So, maybe I’m odd for calling Internet strangers to quit their jobs and follow their hearts; but, then again, maybe it shouldn’t be so odd for the American Dream to actually involve dreaming.
So, break a leg.
