If COVID-19 has negatively impacted your job, now is the time to diversify your professional toolkit to showcase your transferable skills. You may also find yourself curious about changing your career trajectory, and depending on what your current industry, it’s possible that it means switching industries entirely. Although you might not have all the experience necessary to pivot professionally, leaning into transferable skills can more than often make up for this lack of experience. If you can successfully demonstrate the relevance of these transferable skills throughout your resume, cover letter, and online portfolio, that will make you competitive in the job landscape. 

Within almost every job listing, there are certain skills highlighted (i.e., communication, multitasking, collaboration, critical thinking, attention to detail, creativity, leadership, dependable, teamwork, organization), to name a few. These words are known as transferable skills because no matter what the job or profession is, they make the difference between a successful and unsuccessful workplace environment. Transferable skills are ones that apply in all professions and usually are the foundation of the workplace and organizational success. Transferable skills aren’t limited to the workplace; they can be skills you learned through volunteer work, hobbies, passion projects, or even being a parent. When considering what transferable skills you have, reflect on your life experiences in and out of the workplace.  

When conducting your job search, it’s important to identify companies that reflect your passion points and interests as well as updating your resume, cover letter, and online portfolio to demonstrate to hiring managers the diversity of value you can add to their organization while highlighting your transferable skills. Given that job descriptions and tasks might not always line up perfectly with your previous experience, learning how to identify and hone your transferable skills can make a substantial impact on your job search process. Here are several ways that you can identify your transferable skills.  

How to identify your transferable skills: 

Discover the skills that set you apart. 

Take inventory of your entire professional toolkit, soft and hard skills. To make sure that your career change is successful by leveraging transferable skills, identify what makes you unique. 

Understand how your skills translate. 

Understanding how your skills translate to a new industry is critical. Hiring managers and recruiters tend to gravitate toward candidates who have linear career paths and skills, which is an advantage and a disadvantage for anyone looking to change careers. If you’re able to help connect the dots for the recruiter or interviewer and show them why your skills are valuable, you’ve taken a step in the right direction.

As businesses begin to open back up, employers will be looking to staff up their empty workplaces, but the hiring landscape has drastically changed since the COVID-19 pandemic struck, forcing jobseekers to get creative in how they stand out among the plethora of applicants.

Just a few months ago, jobseekers were in the driver’s seat and controlled who they wanted to work for, making employers jump through hoops to make themselves more desirable to these candidates. Now that the candidate-driven market is in the rearview mirror, it remains to be seen how this will impact employers’ attempts to attract jobseekers. But one thing is clear: Jobseekers need to make themselves stand out now that the unemployment rate is over 14%.

Jobseeker Branding

Recent survey findings from The Manifest reveal that jobseekers are using branding to make themselves stand out among their competition, just like employers did during the candidate-driven market. According to The Manifest, “Personal branding helps people distinguish themselves from others with similar interests, skills, or qualities.” For jobseekers focusing on their personal brands, they must remember that the key components for applying to a job are still vital.

The Manifest’s report found that 72% of employers say candidates’ résumés are very important to determining their readiness for a position. Jobseekers who have adopted a personal brand are able to use specific phrases in their résumés to help align their experience with the job they are seeking.

Another way jobseekers are using branding is in the “elevator pitch.” What was once a recruiter’s task is now in candidates’ court because the onus is on them to sell recruiters on why they should be hired. And employers appreciate the pitch! According to The Manifest, “Almost all employers (95%) say a personal statement or elevator pitch is important when evaluating a candidate.”

Jobseekers are also trying to improve their brand on social media. The Manifest finds that “almost all employers (90%) say social media is important when evaluating a candidate.” As jobseekers find ways to stand out, they are turning to social media to tell a story about their lives, but The Manifest cautions jobseekers to be careful in how much information they share.

“A polished and professional LinkedIn profile could appear incongruent with an Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook account where you post about partying or illegal drugs,” says Kelsey McKeon, a Content Writer at The Manifest.

Recruiters and HR professionals may be familiar with search engine optimization (SEO) to get their job postings out to larger audiences, and jobseekers are now adopting this practice to make their names appear higher in search results. Candidates who want to improve their search engine results page are updating their LinkedIn profile by completing essential fields such as “Location” and “Company.” Jobseekers are also customizing their LinkedIn profile URLs to include first and last names. The Manifest suggests that jobseekers can also optimize other channels such as Twitter to appear in results pages more readily.

Finally, the truly dedicated jobseekers who want to stand out are creating a personal website to take the branding further. These websites feature candidates’ résumés, samples of their work, and other items that help tell their story. “It helps to think of a personal website as serving a similar function to an appropriate social media account,” says McKeon. “Personal websites showcase a candidate’s personality.” Additionally, these sites can help improve candidates’ SEO rankings and provide way more information to recruiters than just a standard one-page cover letter.

Interview Prep

Building up a brand to get noticed by recruiters is only half the battle for jobseekers; prepping for the interview is also extremely important. According to JDP, an overwhelming majority of Americans (93%) have experienced anxiety related to job interviews. But preparation is the best antidote for anxiety. So how exactly do jobseekers prepare?

With all the talk about “employee engagement,” it’s only fair to ask, “Can I really get all the people in my organization to give their best – every day?”

The short answer is probably not “all.” But with the right amount of effort you can get “most” of them to give their best … most of the time. And that’s a lot better than where most companies are right now.

Boiled down to its simplest parts, employee engagement is about connecting with employees and getting them focused. It requires an ongoing and consistent effort by managers to bring out the best in people.

Employee engagement takes practice

You don’t need to be good friends with every employee – but it does help to build cordial relationships. That makes working with people more productive and cohesive.

People get more engaged in their work when the work means something to them, when they understand their role in the organization, and when they can see and appreciate the results of their own efforts.

Here are some “hands on” ways leaders can work to improve interactions and create a deeper connection with employees and colleagues:

• Make it personal. Use people’s names when talking to them – from the janitor to the CEO. Even better, use the names of their significant others – spouses, kids, parents – when possible.
• Say more than hello. Sometimes it’s necessary to cut to the chase and get to the business at hand – a project, deadline, important question, etc. But in other circumstances, there’s time to show interest in employees’ and colleagues’ lives. Instead of a generic “How are you?” ask about something that affects them.
• Talk about their interests. People surround themselves with hints of what interests them outside of work (for instance, sports ticket stubs, photos of beach trips, logo T-shirts from local events, race medals, certificates of appreciation from philanthropic groups, etc.). Look for those hints and ask about them. Once you know a little about what they do outside work, you have a starter for other conversations: “How did your son’s soccer game turn out?” “Where did you volunteer this weekend?” “Planning any vacations?”
• Show appreciation. Avoid waiting for the end of a project or annual reviews to thank employees and coworkers for their contributions. And it’s OK to say thanks for the little things they bring to the table – a good sense of humor, a sharp eye for errors, an impeccable work station, a positive attitude.
• Make others feel important. Feeling important is slightly different than feeling appreciated. Employees need to know they’re relevant. Let them know you recognize their contributions by referring to past successes when you talk to them personally and to others in meetings. Explain why their work was important.
• Recognize emotions. Work and life are roller coasters of emotions. Leaders don’t have to react to every peak and valley, but they’ll want to address the highs and lows they see. For instance, “You seem frustrated and anxious lately. Is something wrong that I can help with?” Or, “I can sense you’re very excited and proud. You deserve to be.”

The ripple effects of the COVID-19 crisis continue to increase as the unemployment rate rises to levels we haven’t seen since the Great Depression.

We’ve seen layoffs and furloughs from companies that are struggling to stay afloat. Other organizations have merely closed their doors. However, with this current employment crisis have come opportunities for companies that are thriving while providing solutions during these uncertain times.

We’ve seen companies like InstaCart, a home delivery grocery service, grow because people no longer want to go to supermarkets. The company has recruited Uber and Lyft drivers to provide this service, as commuters are no longer hiring them for trips to airports and restaurants.

Likewise, pizza delivery chains such as Papa John’s, Domino’s, and Pizza Hut are thriving and hiring thousands of new employees to meet the demand of home delivery. These companies have pivoted their business models with such new features as “touchless pizza,” guaranteeing their workers are wearing masks and never touching pizzas in the production/delivery process. They are also offering “custom delivery” points, permitting delivery to locations other than your home.

Perhaps the largest recruiters today are Walmart and Amazon, which are advertising for positions at their fulfillment and warehousing facilities. It would seem as though the growing number of unemployed would make the hiring decisions easy.

Intensifying Complexity for HR Departments

But take a closer look at the overall situation, and you’ll find it has become more complex for an overworked Human Resources department usually charged with hiring. Mistakes can be made when hiring large numbers of people in a matter of weeks. Fluid peaks and valleys are forever changing, and how long will the high or low volumes exist? Walmart, for example, announced in March that it would be adding more than 150,000 people to its workforce during a 3-month period.

These organizations, and others, could benefit by using a third party to handle vetting and hiring. Staffing and recruiting firms frequently bring value to times like these and can be used as the segue to full-time employment.

When handled exclusively in-house, important details can be overlooked and volumes not met. For example, over the years, there have been instances when improperly vetted delivery people have committed crimes on the job. Companies were sued when it was discovered these employees had criminal records. In addition, production levels are still not being met due to the timeliness of the process.

Going Beyond Warm Bodies

In many cases, these companies are looking for “warm bodies” and hiring without going through the proper steps of doing detailed qualification checks that match companies’ policies. A minor criminal infraction may be overlooked or regarded as no big deal. One wrong hire can result in significant problems. There are plenty of candidates, but are they the right people, and are in-house hiring departments taking the proper steps? It’s all about understanding the client’s needs and HR requirements.

Frequently, these staffing companies will have fully vetted, qualified people ready to work. This can save valuable time for corporate hiring and HR departments. These companies can also consider using staffing and recruiting companies for these positions. All liability is transferred to these organizations, so it’s likely that the right people will be hired, and if not, the company is not responsible for mishaps.

Staffing and recruiting companies are also aware of work safety environments, and they’ll quickly be able to assess if companies are meeting these standards. This is particularly important today, when companies are being sued for negligence and wrongful deaths because employees have contracted the COVID-19 virus at work.

The only way to learn how many plates you can spin is to break some plates.

The question of capacity guarantees failure.

T.S. Eliot said, “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

The idea is scary, even if Eliot wasn’t thinking about managing projects or tackling stretch goals.

The plate-drop problem:

You just handed another plate to a team member and you notice a perilous wobbler three sticks down.

#1. Don’t spin plates with them.

The only time to do someone’s job for them is during a crisis. But before you jump in, what if your poor management created or fueled the crisis.

If you’re the problem, work on yourself before tampering with others.

#2. Let plates fall and learn from failure.

Questions:

What happened/didn’t happen that caused this failure?
How did I (leader) contribute to this failure?
What will you do differently next time?
#3. Teach them to spin more efficiently.

#4. Don’t automatically extend timelines when plates start wobbling.

Changing a timeline prolongs agony and doesn’t increase capacity. Adjust timelines only when they were unrealistic to begin with.

Questions:

If you bring your best, how likely is it that you will meet your deadline?
What do you need to do to get this done on time?
What do you need to stop doing to meet this deadline?
#5. Give some of their plates to someone else.

You have two options when skillful high-performers start dropping plates.

Give them help.
Give some of their plates to someone else.
Broken plates:

The way you respond to broken plates determines your future.

I’ll never do that again. (You’re stuck)
What will I do differently next time? (Growth)
Don’t lower standards to save plates. Instead, learn, affirm, and keep spinning.

How might leaders increase productivity without driving people crazy?

Just like Girl Scout cookies come in many different flavors, sales jobs are incredibly varied. While one role might be perfect for your personality and career goals, another might make you miserable or require skills you don’t have.

Rather than learning from direct experience which type of sales job you love — and which ones you’re ill-suited for — use this comprehensive guide. You’ll learn what each position encompasses and how to tell whether it’s right for you.

What to Look for in a Sales Job

Before you can analyze a sales job, you need to know what to look for. Take the following five points into consideration.

Industry and career path: Are you interested in working for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies? Chances are, you’ll need to start as a business development rep and work your way to an account executive position. On the other hand, if you go into manufacturing sales, you’ll probably be responsible for handling deals from start to finish.

This is to say: The industry you work in will determine the type of sales roles open to you, and vice versa. Before you commit to a certain career path or industry, make sure the positions and focus are compatible with your goals and preferences.

Long-term job outlook: Certain jobs, like BDRs, are steadily growing more popular. Others, like outside sales, are on the decline. Before you commit to a career path, make sure your role will still be necessary in 10 years.

Type of compensation: How do you like to make money? Sales compensation ranges from zero-commission (retail salespeople, for example) to pure commission (your salary is completely determined by performance.) The former offers a greater sense of security, but the latter can be incredibly profitable — assuming you’re good at your job.

It’s even more important to keep in mind the average and median pay of the role. You might discover the position you’re interested doesn’t provide enough income to maintain your desired lifestyle.

Type of leads: If you prefer working inbound leads, a role that asks you to proactively find your opportunities won’t be the best fit.

Personality: You’ll be miserable if you dislike the main activities of your role. For instance, someone who loves to get to know their customers and help them achieve their goals over an extended period would likely be best in account management.

Common Sales Job Types

1. Sales Development Rep (SDR)

Job Level: Mid-Level

SDRs (also commonly called business development reps, or BDRs) are responsible for the first part of the sales process: Researching, prospecting, and qualifying leads.

Depending on the organization, that may mean identifying and reaching out to potential good fits, answering requests for more information, following up with prospects who downloaded content, prospecting on LinkedIn and other social networks, and more.

It’s hard to leave a job at a large, respected company to join an exciting small company in the best of times, and it sounds practically crazy these days. Yet in the past three weeks, I’ve had three conversations with friends who were making that choice.

Here’s my advice.

Stop trying to compare the jobs — that will make it almost impossible to leave your current job unless things get terrible. Instead, start asking what the jobs say about your values — that will guide you in the right long-term direction.

Stop Comparing Jobs

We face three big problems when it comes to comparing job choices.

First, we over-value things we already have. It’s why we think our used car should be worth more than the dealer is offering. It’s the source of the so-called wise saying, "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” Amazingly, scientists have measured the so-called endowment effect and found that it distorts our value of things by about 2X...so maybe there is a sort of wisdom in that saying.

When it comes to changing jobs, this means we set an irrationally high bar. Of course, the new position should be better, or why change. But how much better is enough? Think about it this way: if you make a 15% better choice every other year for ten years, you’ll end up 2X better off.

Second, we under-emphasize likely outcomes. Like the case of the fish not being able to perceive the water it swims in, we underestimate the real risks of re-organizations, stagnation and bureaucracy in our current job. What is the chance of a re-organization that affects our job happening in the next year? In some companies, there might even be two re-orgs in that time.

Finally, we over-emphasize unlikely catastrophic risks. When it comes to changing jobs, that is not such a big deal in normal times. But in today’s economic environment, this means we worry about unlikely outcomes like the new company cratering just after we join. One question should help clear that up: If the company is that close to dying, why are they hiring? In my experience, Covid-19 or not, hiring freezes are the first step leaders take when cash is tight.

So. We are irrationally biased to hold on tight to our current job. We underestimate the chances of normal things continuing to happen in our current job. And we overestimate the chances of very unlikely things happening in our new one.

In the face of general Covid-19 uncertainty, all this works together to make it emotionally very difficult to make a rational decision to move to a better job.

Set Aside The Apocalypse

Given this volatile mix of decision-making biases and emotional stress, the first step is to zero-out anything that has to do with the end of the world.

An apocalypse probably affects similar job situations equally, so it’s not a significant determinant. An apocalypse is also relatively unlikely. In part, we can tell it is unlikely by how worried we all are about it — people blithely accept commonplace tragedies, but they obsess about the tragically unlikely. 

Such stress is not helpful for good decision-making, so set the apocalypse aside for a moment.

If you feel it is time to take the next step in your career and you have your eye on the C-suite, congratulations! Obtaining a role as a senior executive is the ultimate goal for many, and with years of hard work, dedication and personal sacrifice, you have gotten to the point where there are fewer steps up the ladder than down!

I have had the opportunity to speak with highly qualified professionals who are ready for the C-suite, and also, unfortunately, dozens who are eager to get there, but are not quite prepared. While every professional background and leadership style is different, I have found three main attributes that successful C-suite executives possess.

1. Flourishing C-suite executives build collaborative, interdepartmental teams that achieve goals, without vying for credit and praise.

If you are someone who engages and inspires cross-functional teams to meet objectives, while providing opportunities for individualized growth, a place in the C-suite may very well be for you. This demonstrates a willingness to take responsibility — defining projects and outcomes, and delivering results — without the need for praise and recognition. A true leader welcomes challenges and gives credit to the teams that help "make it happen." Why? Their focus isn't on themselves but rather on the company at large (and the people who are a part of it). This is the mark of a true leader that is prepared to set direction, without the skew of personal gain.

2. The C-level recognizes the big picture when everyone else gets hung up on small details.

Please do not misunderstand — details are incredibly important and should not be overlooked. And, while every aspect of a project, both big and small, need to be done with precision, sometimes employees can become so consumed by minor tasks they fail to see anything beyond what they are doing. Part of leading an organization is the ability to recognize where it is currently, while simultaneously knowing where it can go, what it can become and how it is going to get there. If you can bring the "small" facets together and align them to meet larger goals, you are able to develop an organization's vision and mission, which is exactly what the C-suite needs.

3. Senior executives maintain continuity during a crisis.

No day goes as planned. When "disaster" strikes (minor or extreme), your experience provides you with the ability to remain calm and forge ahead. You anticipate needs, rearrange priorities and manage change, communicating plans with precision and clarity. The ability to do this only comes with years of experience, and is an attribute each leader must have. If you can develop strategic plans to maintain continuity and calm during the unexpected, you have the industry knowledge and know-how necessary to lead.

Time and time again, I have spoken with clients who are C-suite ready, but find it challenging to locate open positions. There are two reasons this happens: The higher up you go, the fewer available positions there are, and/or a change in leadership may be sensitive, so roles are not publicly advertised. Here are some tips to help you overcome those hurdles:

If possible, share your ambitions with your current employer, letting them know you are interested and open to a change.

I recognize that this may not be possible in every work environment, but if you are fortunate enough to have a long history with an employer, you can approach this topic with humility. Express your desire to learn more, candidly discussing your personal goals and interest to move to a C-level role. This is especially important if you are aware that a current executive may be leaving or if a new executive role is opening.

Is it possible to find a business owner who doesn’t want to push up sales? No matter whether it is a small or prosperous company, everybody wants to sell more. But how to achieve that result? How to increase sales team performance? What techniques can be applied to sell more? Let’s have a look at this question in greater detail.

What Is Sales Performance?

This term means how effective the members of your sales team are when it comes to setting goals and achieving them. Sales revenue is the main factor that helps measure performance. However, there are some other metrics that can also influence this indicator, such as the amount of repeat business and time spent per client.

A service or product can’t sell itself (no matter how qualitative it is). That’s why your success is contingent on the professionalism of your sales team that requires at least one member who understands how to sell and knows for sure how to increase your revenue.

What Factors Affect Sales Performance?

If you are a revenue-based company, you need to do your best to drive sales performance. But first, you need to understand what particular factors influence sales performance indicators:

• Sagging economy. A poor economy is probably the main reason that can cause a drop in sales. In such a scenario, business owners have no choice and are made to decrease the pricing policy until the situation changes for the better.
• Bad individual performance. If the members of your sales team aren’t motivated, in all likelihood, the results will be poor.
• Poor sales forecasting. Placing unrealistic expectations can lead to poor sales performance.
• Incorrect sales pipeline. If the sales pipeline is too long and improperly organized, this also negatively influences the general sales performance.

What Are the Best Strategies That Can Improve Your Sales Team Performance?

Now, it is time to move on to discussing the most effective ways to improve sales performance. If you don’t use them, we recommend paying attention to these techniques. Thanks to them, you’ll finally understand how to improve your sales team’s performance.

Provide the right sales tools

Repetitive tasks take too much time. T make your teamwork more effective, you should choose the right sales tools that can improve their productivity and help them automate some processes.

The best thing that you can do for your team is finding the right CRM platform that can significantly reduce the amount of time spent on time-consuming and repetitive tasks. One of such tools is Nimble CRM: a powerful CRM platform that can automate a variety of processes and help your sales reps sell more.

If a recruiter ever needs to present more than 3-4 candidates in order to make one great hire, there is something fundamentally wrong with the hiring process being used. And, if two of the remaining three aren’t aren’t strong backups, something is even bigger is wrong.

Having just finished a series of meetings with a group of hiring managers and their recruiters, I am more convinced than ever that lack of understanding of real job needs is the root cause of too few qualified candidates. 

Use the intake meeting to gather the information you need to attract the right talent 

When I first became a recruiter, my early engineering and manufacturing background offered me the chance to only handle search projects where I had a complete understanding of the work involved. However, my recruiting effectiveness dropped when I started to get assignments for jobs I knew little about. I overcame this personal lack of job knowledge by being more inquisitive and asking the hiring manager this critical question when starting the intake meeting:

What does the person in this role actually need to do over the course of the year to be considered extremely successful?

As part of having the hiring manager describe a few major objectives, it was also important to define what the new hire had to do in the first few months to ensure the person was on track to achieve those objectives. This list of 6-8 time-phased key performance objectives (KPOs) soon became known as a performance-based job description. Preparing this type of job description ensured that recruiters and hiring managers were on the same page when it came to sourcing, assessing and hiring the strongest talent possible without wasting time and effort.

The biggest benefit of this shift was the ability to expand the talent pool to include more diverse, high potential and passive candidates who could do the work but who had a different mix of skills and experiences than listed on the typical job description. As important, these candidates were 2-3X more responsive to our outreach messages since the job was quickly seen as a potential career move rather than a vague and ill-defined lateral transfer.

Along the way we discovered that in order to gain a complete understanding of the job, it was important that the most important KPOs were written as SMARTe objectives (Specific task, Measurable, Action verb, Results defined, Time bound and include something about the environment, e.g., pace, culture, hiring manager, unusual challenges). As a minimum the remaining KPOs needed to describe the task, the action or change needed and some measurable result or deliverable.

When you’re asked to explain why you should be promoted, get a raise or be hired for a new job, it can make you feel uncomfortable. Why? Because you’re forced to talk about yourself—something that your mother told you never to do.

Well, there’s a better way to get noticed and nudge your career in the right direction without having to say a word. Here’s a checklist that will tell you what you need to do to progress in 2020:

1) Possess awareness. Ensure your antennae are always up. Never stop observing and gathering information, which allows you to read situations accurately and anticipate outcomes.

2) Act honorably. Be known for being candid. If you say you’ll do it, others should know they can count on you. You’re open—not guarded—and you don’t come up with excuses.

3) Demonstrate confidence. Take time to accurately read yourself, both your strengths and your weaknesses. It’s worth the effort. You’ll avoid the dangers of becoming viewed as overconfident.

4) Present effectively. Recognize that nothing receives more positive feedback than being an effective presenter. Your team will look to you to be persuasive and deliver the goods.

5) Express yourself clearly. Dashing off memos, letters, emails, texts or voice messages has consequences. Namely, confusing recipients and earning the right to be ignored. Taking time to frame your thoughts for clarity is a gamechanger.

6) Contribute generously. What you do every day when arriving at work goes beyond your job description. Contributing ideas and making suggestions will improve your performance and help the business succeed.

7) Possess an aiding attitude. The workplace is often competitive, and everyone is cautious and keeps their cards close to their chest. Yet, everyone needs help, so be the outlier and offer it. Don’t look for a “help needed” sign—you can sense it. The payback will be instant.

8) Show some imagination. Many good ideas get killed before we express them. Why? Because a little voice in our head tells us that others will think we’re stupid. Take a chance. Let your mind play with possibilities and say, “You know, I was thinking….”

9) Stay focused. Some call it being mindful, others call it being single-minded. Whatever the word, you’re focused on what you’re doing and are neither distracted or distracting.

10) Simplify endlessly. At some point, jobs take on a life of their own—and somehow become unnecessarily complicated. It just happens and most people accept it. Don’t be one of them. Ask yourself, “How can I simplify this and get rid of all the stuff that keeps me from being more productive and helpful?”

Congrats to the class of 2020! On behalf of everyone everywhere, we want to be the first to apologize for how your final year of school ended! Graduation ceremonies have been canceled, and you won’t get the same experience of walking onto the stage and getting your diploma handed to you, but fear not: You’ll be the first class to experience an entirely digital hiring process! And being the tech-savvy Gen Zs you are, we know you’ll do great! It’s the underprepared HR pros and recruiters we’re worried about.

According to new research from recruiting platform iCIMS, U.S. college graduates in the class of 2020 were expected to apply to roughly 10 jobs on average before the coronavirus pandemic hit, and after, that number doubled to 20. The iCIMS Class of 2020 report uncovers the changes in the expectations of graduating seniors and offers insights on how employers will recruit entry-level talent as the economy itself shifts gears.

Report Details

The report is based on a survey of 500 U.S. college seniors and 500 recruiters and HR professionals, along with data points and trends from iCIMS’s proprietary database of more than 3 million job postings, 75 million applications, and 4 million hires each year.

“The college graduating class of 2020 had big career hopes and expected to be welcomed by a strong job market,” says Irene DeNigris, chief people officer at iCIMS, in a press release. “Employers were thriving and needed candidates to fill open positions in their growing businesses. However, the economy shifted in response to the global health crisis and is changing the way employers hire.”

“Our new reality reinforces the need for flexibility, as the center of gravity shifts from a candidates’ market to an employers’ market,” DeNigris adds. “It is more critical than ever before to be prepared for the future of work, continuing to put people at the forefront of all that we do.”

The Hiring Landscape Varies

Some companies are hiring at an increased speed and volume, while others are transitioning to a completely virtual hiring and onboarding structure, hiring with precision, or solely focusing on maintaining engagement with talent pools and current employees. While employers navigate changing business needs, HR and talent acquisition leaders must plan for long-term success.

The Class of 2020 report reveals preferences and expectations of the newest wave of candidates entering the job market, as well as how leading employers are maintaining their talent goals.

According to the report, some of the top tools and methods college seniors are using to search for jobs are Google (64%), social media/job board hybrids such as LinkedIn (64%), company career pages (57%), and career fairs (57%).

Pro tip: Improve the quality of job applicants and drive more relevant traffic to career portals by focusing on the search engine optimization of job postings so they get picked up by Google. Ensure the company career site is dynamic and mobile-friendly, and pivot events strategies to host virtual career fairs.

iCIMS also found that the overwhelming majority (95%) of jobseekers entering the workforce expect to hear back from an employer in less than 2 weeks after applying for a specific position.

Pro tip: Prioritize transparency in application statuses, knowing that students are actively submitting to jobs, as companies’ time frames shift. Utilize candidate relationship management (CRM) tools, texting, and online job portals to keep candidates engaged and informed.

The iCIMS report also found that 66% of recruiting professionals say they have been ghosted by a candidate in the past year, and nearly 32% say they have been ghosted more than 5 times. This has been a recurring problem for the last few years, but now that COVID-19 has changed the employment landscape, ghosting may become a thing of the past. However, recruiters and HR pros should still be diligent about their recruiting efforts just to be safe.

Emotional intelligence is a valuable skill in any career, but even more so in sales.