(WXYZ) — Thousands of metro Detroiter's are trying to get back to work but in this competitive market, landing a good paying gig isn’t easy.
"It was a little daunting at first," said Alexandria Burgess. Like a lot of metro Detroiters, Burgess found herself in need of a job when COVID-19 hit. The Adrian mom had an underlying health condition that made working in person risky, so she began the hunt for a remote gig.
"It was a lot of applying, it was a lot more than I was used to," Burgess said.
"What would you say the biggest challenges were as you were going through the process?," asked 7 Action News' Ameera David.
"Just the anxiety of not knowing if I could find something," Burgess said.
Before long, she started to grow a little worried. "There seems to be a bigger delay in response," she said.
Delayed responses from prospective employers is the half of it. Job networking site, LinkedIn, found in some cases that candidates are getting flat out ghosted.
"Before the pandemic people would ghost on companies' recruiters where they would get interviews, not show up," said Andrea Seaman fromLinkedIn. "Now the ghosting is on the other foot so people will reach out to recruiters. They’ll do an interview or two and then they won’t hear back from the company.
"It’s definitely more competitive," added Seaman.
Millions of people are out of work, with one open position attracting anywhere from hundreds to tens of thousands of applications.
"There are a lot of opportunities out there, but people really have to jostle for them," Seaman said.
That means leaning on your personal and professional networks is critical. It turns out not enough job seekers are doing it. ALinkedIn survey finding a vast majority of applicants felt shame reaching out to friends for help because of their unemployed status.
Job seekers holding on to the stigma even though hiring managers are not! Ninety-six percent of recruiters say they’d happily hire someone laid off due to COVID-19.
"Hiring managers are basically saying, this is a new frontier for us and not a deal breaker," Seaman said.
So, in the end, the biggest challenge you have to conquer is the mental one. Here’s what experts say can help:
- Develop a strategy creating. A list of jobs, you're interested in and people to connect with will make your search feel more controlled
- Set specific goals and deadlines that allow you to achieve and celebrate the smaller wins along the way
- Connect with other job seekers. Hearing other experiences will help remind you ….that you’re not alone
"You're not the only one who's in this position, it's kind of collective at this point where everyone is going through different stages of anxiety and uncertainty," Burgess said.
We’re happy to report that in less than two months, Burgess was able to nail down a marketing job for a company based in California. That company, Cience technologies, still has plenty of open positions. If that's your line of work, check it out here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cience/.
If you have a question or concern you want us to look into, email Ameera David at rebounddetroit@wxyz.com
