How COVID-19 is reshaping the job market

As hard as it sounds, we have to accept that the COVID-19 is going to stay with us a while longer than anticipated. At the beginning, many businesses where forced to close due to the lack of customers/clients, workers, or due to goverment regulations. The immediate effect of all this was that many people lost their jobs and livelihood. The long term effect is that many people don't want to go back to their previous jobs, or go back to work altogether. For some it is for safety reasons, for others it is because they have to (or want to) take care of their families. But no matter the reason, this has opened up an opportunity for many. For the first time in a long time, there are more job opennings than candidates in many industries. This means that people are starting to rethink their career paths, because it is easier to get hired for a job that few people are applying for. 

With the reopening of the economy, people are going back to work, but not necessarily to what they were doing before the COVID-19 pandemic started. If you are in this situation, there are two pieces of advice I can give you:
 
1) Be clear as to why you are changing careers;
2) Have something to back up this career change.
 
The way I see it, people don’t just wake-up one day and say, “I want to work on this, not on that!” You need to have a clear reason why are you starting along a new career path. It will likely come up in a job interview, and you don’t want to be caught off-guard.

You are also going to need something to back up this career change: have you studied something that allows you to work in this new field? Have you had any exposure to the profession (like volunteer work, a side job, or maybe you have worked closely with professionals from that field?), maybe you already have some experience. This needs to be included in your resume.

If you don’t have that kind of evidence for why you’re making this career change, seek out opportunities now to show your commitment, whether it’s volunteer work, enrolling in classes, or even independent research. Without this to support your career change, you won’t be able to catch a recruiter’s or hiring manager's eye. The education industry is a good example of this. There is a shortage of teachers, substitutes and staff all over the country.