Going to be Made Redundant? Here’s five tips for job hunting in 2020.

Soon to be job hunting? Here’s 5 top tips for you if you’re at risk of redundancy or just fancy a new challenge after furlough.

📝 update your CV
🎟 network
🖇 volunteer
👔 practice interviews
🤳🏽 update LinkedIn and social media
👩🏽‍🎓 learn new skills

Update Your CV

For many employees being made redundant or losing their job, dusting off the old CV is a must. It may have been 5, 10 or even 20 years since you last wrote a CV. However, they are still very relevant and important for job hunters in 2020.

Making sure your CV is updated and in line with current employer expectations is important. CVs haven’t changed much in the last 20-30 years but there are still more modern ways to write and prepare your CV. Have a look at some of these sites:

CV Library
The Guardian
Personal Career Management

Network in your industry

As a Settlement Agreement Solicitor, we deal with lots of different types of employees, from the low end, key workers, to the managers, chief executives and big wigs. One thing that I’ve noticed is those that find new roles are the ones who network in their industry and wider afield.

Have you ever been networking? I’m sure you have. Every club, social event, sports team, and regular weekly/monthly activity is a network. So use your network to find new roles.

You can also network externally. Visit business networking groups and other business events. In 2020, many of these are being done online, so it’s much less hassle.

Volunteer Your Time

Volunteering at any time is a great and noble thing to do, but if you are job hunting then volunteering is a really good idea.

You are allowed to volunteer during furlough, but of course if you have already been made redundant then you are free to volunteer. There’s a number of benefits to volunteering:

1. Give something back to the community
2. Help others less fortunate
3. Meet new people
4. Learn new skills, enhance old skills, use current skills
5. Gain accreditations
6. Use professional skills and knowledge to help others/charity/organisations

Practice Your Interview Skills

Ask someone you know to help interview you. Better yet, go on a course to help you practice your interview skills. Coming across well in an interview isn’t about acting mind, it is about being yourself. So if you’re not a nice person, then you might struggle! The vast majority of people will be ok though, provided you be yourself and don’t be the person you think they want.

Here’s some top interview tips from Monster.com

• Practice good nonverbal communication.
• Dress for the job or company.  
• Listen.
• Don’t talk too much.
• Don’t be too familiar.
• Use appropriate language.
• Don’t be cocky.
• Take care to answer the questions.

There’s some great tips for practicing an interview here as well.

Update your Linked In and Social Media Profiles

In 2020, employers look at your social media profiles. In fact, when I recruit, it is the second thing I do after read the CV. If the CV has any interest whatsoever, I look at social media.

Why do employers look at social media? To see if you’re actually who you say you are and not some psycho!

Joking aside, employers will look at your social media profiles to see whether you are a suitable candidate, and so they usually aren’t looking for unprofessional conduct on your facebook. This means you need to lock down your facebook profile and other social media, if you do have content on there that may be less than desirable,

LinkedIn is a great source of jobs and connection with potential employers, so if you’re on there then improve your profile like your CV. But more than that, LinkedIn is your window of opportunity to really sell yourself. Explain your WHY and give off a bit of personality too, all while keeping it professional and showing off your good bits. Use articles and posts to demonstrate your knowledge and experience, comment on industry posts and news to show you really know your stuff. Get involved.

Learn New Skills

Taking a period of furlough, redundancy, time off work, or whatever, following a settlement agreement or redundancy is a great way of showing future employers that you actually care about your own self development AND guess what – you’ll actually be a more valuable asset as well.

Upskilling could be in anything, For example, a lawyer could learn some marketing skills. An office admin could take a course in Excel or touch typing. A manager could learn some new people skills online.

You could in theory learn new skills from places like YouTube and Udemy, but it would probably be better for your CV to get an actual accredited certificate. Look at providers such as Open Learn, from the Open University, which offers free courses online. Some online course providers include:

• https://www.learndirect.com
• https://uklearns.pearson.com
• https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/find-a-course/where-to-find-free-online-learning
• https://newskillsacademy.co.uk

Summary

If you’ve been made redundant, been given a settlement agreement, handed your notice in or are just looking for a new role, then our top 5 tips for job hunting in 2020 should hopefully help.