Author: Kathy Caprino

How To Effectively Manage Your Job Search During The Coronavirus Pandemic

Part of the series “Supporting Today’s Workforce”

In the best of times, job search can be very daunting and confusing to many. But in extremely uncertain and rapidly evolving times like these, professionals can feel at a complete loss as to how to move forward in their efforts to job search, interview, network, communicate a compelling personal brand and land a great new role.

To delve deeper into the do’s and don’ts of job search during the coronavirus pandemic, I caught up with Lisa Hufford today, who is founder and CEO of Simplicity Consulting—the Pacific Northwest’s preferred marketing and business consultancy for the new world of work. Simplicity has been named to the Inc. 5000 list for five years running as one of the fastest-growing private companies in America, and Hufford has been recognized as an Inc. Top 10 Female Entrepreneur and an E&Y Entrepreneurial Winning Woman. She’s a champion for professionals transitioning to consulting and advises companies how to build on-demand, project-based teams that add immediate value.

Hufford is also the author of Navigating the Talent Shift: How to Build On-Demand Teams That Drive Innovation, Control Costs, and Get Results, which advises leaders on how to access top talent and fill skills gaps with on-demand, project-based experts to supplement their teams, and Personal Brand Playbook, which outlines five actionable steps to define and share your personal brand. She’s currently writing her third book—an inspiring how-to guide for professionals looking to make the leap from corporate to consulting.

Here’s what Hufford shares about best practices in these times for your job search process:

Kathy Caprino: Are organizations still hiring during this crisis? If so, what fields and industries?

Lisa Hufford: Though it varies by location and industry, there are companies that are still hiring right now. Look for those companies that are uniquely positioned to add value in our new normal environment. Tech companies are largely well-equipped to transition their workforce to remote roles and are trying to maintain business as usual.

Tableau Software, for example, is actively hiring globally. There are also a number of roles that have surged in demand due to this health crisis—ranging from CPA or store associate to healthcare specialist or warehouse manager. Amazon, for example, has seen a huge demand spike and is hiring as a result. At Simplicity, we’ve seen an influx in communications roles as companies work to keep their employees, customers, and constituents informed in this rapidly-evolving pandemic and a focus on virtual events.

Caprino: How can people best handle a job search right now if they’re employed but want out of their current job?

Hufford: Let me challenge this by asking, are you sure you want to leave your job? Take some time to reflect on your strengths and the successes you want to achieve, and then ask yourself if you can create that where you are. Every job has its pros and cons, so before walking away in the hopes that the grass is greener somewhere else—and in the midst of economic uncertainty, no less!—see if you can make your current role more fulfilling. Whether it’s working with your manager to carve out time for a project that lights you up or mentally connecting elements of your role with your personal values, there are usually opportunities to shape your role (or your perspective) in small, but meaningful ways.

Caprino: What about those who are currently unemployed and it’s urgent for them to find employment—how do they handle the job search process now?

Hufford: My advice for finding a job is the same as it always has been: Take intentional action.

First, you need to define your personal brand and tell your story, framed by your past successes, on your LinkedIn profile. There’s a lot of noise right now, so showcase your strengths and passion with clarity and laser focus, so that you stand out to the right hiring manager.

Then, put on your detective hat, and do your research. Discover what companies are hiring for your skills. Use LinkedIn to learn who is working at these companies and reach out to schedule 15-minute chats with warm contacts to learn more about the work they do and the company they work for. Keep in mind: You are not asking for a job or an interview! You are collecting information to learn if the company and the role are a fit.

Set goals for yourself about how many reach outs you will do each day. If your situation is urgent, then consider this is your full-time job. While you can submit your resume blindly to jobs, this has been proven to be the least effective approach, so I encourage you to focus your energies on connecting with your network.

And be mindful that organizations are operating in business-as-unusual. Yes, they’re working remotely and keeping business-critical operations running. But they’re also adjusting to this abrupt new normal and working hard to put out fires and keep their people, clients, and partners informed. And, like you, they’re also bearing the mental load of this current environment. So recognize that things might move slower than usual, and acknowledge that the people you’re reaching out to likely have less bandwidth right now.

Caprino: How can we build our personal brands and get more noticed, for when the job market does open up?

Hufford: If you are an experienced professional, you already have a personal brand—you just need to articulate it. My Personal Brand Playbook guides you through five simple steps to defining and sharing your unique personal brand. I recommend starting there: You can access the Playbook here (free download) or watch the on-demand workshop.

Once you’ve defined your brand, it’s critical to tell a consistent brand story—from your LinkedIn headline to your profile bio, that’s echoed in your resume, website or portfolio, cover letters, introductory emails, and so on. At every touch point, tell the story of who you are and why you do the work you do with confidence and credibility.

Caprino: How can we best demonstrate our value now to organizations that we’d eventually like to work for?

Hufford: LinkedIn is a powerful tool for learning and building your network.

Focus on developing relationships with people at organizations you’re interested in working for, and once those relationships are established, express your interest in working and ask them to pass along full-time positions or contract roles that open up.

That second piece is important: When teams lack open headcount, they may allocate funds to hire a consultant on a project, so make yourself available to all options—not just traditional full-time employment.

Caprino: Any other powerful tips and strategies for job seekers right now?

Hufford: You have options. In addition to traditional full-time employment positions, many companies have a large community of suppliers who work on project-based contracts. Find out who the agencies, staffing companies, and consultancies are in your city, and contact the recruiters. You can often find work for large companies as a contractor or consultant. It’s a great way to learn more about the company, gain skills and expertise, and build your network. It’s also typically a much quicker hiring cycle—days or weeks as opposed to the months that it can take for a full-time position.

Last but not least, keep a positive attitude and keep moving forward. Gamify the process and try to get through as many “no’s” as you can until you get to a “yes.” I believe there is a great job for each person, and it’s up to each of us to define the work we want to do, showcase the business impact of our work, and keep searching for that hiring manager who says “YOU are the perfect fit for this role.”

This is a season, and we will get through this together.

For more information, visit www.simplicityci.com and connect with Lisa Hufford.

To build a better, more rewarding career today, work with Kathy Caprino in her Career Breakthrough Programs and tune into her weekly Finding Brave podcast.

by Kathy Caprino

How Women Leaders Are Rising To The Unique Challenges They’re Facing From The Pandemic

Part of Kathy Caprino’s series “Women, Leadership and Vision”

While the impact of the global pandemic is far-reaching and hitting millions of people throughout the U.S. in different ways, research has shown that women are more likely than men to say their lives have been disrupted because of the coronavirus. And the long-term effects of Covid-19 on women may be more complicated. Unemployment has hit women harder than men, and women in leadership roles are also facing distinct and often acute challenges such as balancing full-time work with full-time caregiving, providing care for their elderly parents, homeschooling, financially supporting their families as breadwinners, and more.

To learn more about how female leaders are feeling the impact of the pandemic and how they are expanding their leadership influence today and beyond, I was excited to catch up this week with Carolyn Childers, CEO of Chief—the private network dedicated to elevating more women to leadership positions, with 2,000 members and 8,000 on the waitlist. Chief members are women that serve in a VP role (or higher) at companies like Amazon, American Express, Google, HBO, and Spotify. A number of my own leadership and executive coaching clients are members of Chief and work with other Chief members, and rave about it.

Childers explored with me a range of unique challenges that women leaders are facing during this time of crisis, and also the opportunities it presents. Here’s what she shares:

Kathy Caprino: From your perspective, in what unique ways are women impacted by coronavirus, as compared to men?

Carolyn Childers: Coronavirus, like many public health crises, hits women particularly hard and often in different ways from men. While early studies have shown that men are at higher risk to die from Covid-19, women are disproportionately affected by its societal implications. Worldwide, women comprise the majority (nearly 70% by some estimates) of frontline healthcare workers; in the US, that figure is nearly 80%.

These nurse practitioners are the front line workers caring for those hospitalized due to Covid-19. Without women in leadership roles, healthcare and policy solutions will not be representative of the workforce tasked with combating the pandemic. And when healthcare and policy solutions are not representative, they fail.

As women are less likely to hold executive roles, they are more likely to be impacted by layoffs. The data already suggests that women are being hit hardest by Covid-19 staff reductions. Women also comprise the world’s majority of informal workers and are more likely to sacrifice their jobs (either voluntarily or by force) should one partner in a couple get sick with the disease.

Caprino: What are the most profound ways in which women leaders’ professional lives are changing as a result of this quarantine?

Childers: Women have always managed a tremendous amount of invisible labor—whether it’s caring for their children, partners, elderly parents, friends, or maintaining the stability of their own household.

While women hold more executive roles now than ever before, the expectation that they should be able to “juggle it all” remains. This expectation was crazy prior to the pandemic, but now it is simply impossible.

For many working parents, caring for their children and households while sustaining employment depends upon external care—or at least school. Women are now expected to be full-time parents, caregivers, homeschool teachers, and housekeepers—all while excelling in their full-time jobs (and, in the case of Chief members, leading their businesses through unprecedented challenge). As a result, their professional lives are more challenging now than ever.

To survive this period, women need support. My Chief cofounder Lindsay Kaplan is an example of someone whose life has changed drastically as a result of stay-at-home orders. Lindsay has a three-month-old and a four-year-old at home. She balances leading Chief with me while managing a full load as a stay-at-home mom.

She is tasked with handling childcare while working to expand Chief as we look towards future cities, Los Angeles among them. Lindsay and I are fortunate to have a relationship where we are honest with each other and have built a team that allows us the flexibility to bypass certain meetings, knowing that our team will provide a detailed update following their call.

Other women leaders are not as fortunate. They may not have a cofounder, team, manager or leader who understands their specific needs. It can be lonely at the top, and those women are now alone in quarantine, away from their teams and support systems. We need to recognize these challenges and step up to help working parents.

Caprino: As a business devoted to supporting women executives, what specific initiatives is Chief pursuing to provide customized support to your members—all of whom are senior leaders?

Childers: Chief was built for this moment—to unite women executives and provide them with the diverse knowledge and support they need to make challenging business decisions. Our mission is resonating more powerfully now than ever as members help one another craft unprecedented business strategies, navigate difficult home situations, and share invaluable resources.

As an organization, our top priority is curating our services to our members’ needs. In just a few weeks, we moved all of our services to virtual, including our premiere peer Core groups. All of our programming is also now virtual, and we are offering more events than ever, including workshops on topics such as wealth management during times of crisis, motivating remote teams, how to lead through immense uncertainty, and private conversations with industry leaders like Ken Chenault, Penny Pritzker, and Eve Rodsky.

In April, our first fully virtual month, the number of women who participated in events was triple what we saw pre-Coronavirus.

We are also amplifying the Chief experience by fast-tracking new services. We launched personal executive coaching so that members can book one-on-one sessions with top-tier, Chief-vetted coaches. We also offered every member one complimentary personal executive coaching session, since everyone needs some extra support right now. We also created our first editorial email, delivering exclusive, reported articles and interviews directly to our members’ inboxes every week.

This content helps connect our community as we’re all physically distanced. Finally, this week we launched the Chief Hiring Board, where members can privately list top candidates and job openings to bolster their teams and explore new opportunities amidst this challenging professional landscape.

Caprino: In your view, what makes women uniquely qualified to lead at large, but especially during this crisis?

Childers: There is a single trait underscoring women’s unique qualification to lead: empathy. Defined as the ability to understand or share another person’s feelings, empathy is exactly why representation in leadership matters—especially in times of crisis. When employees feel supported and are seen by their leaders, they’re twice as likely to be productive and satisfied by their jobs.

From childhood on, women are socialized to be more empathetic than men. To succeed, we need to overcome challenges that are both different and difficult. Once we secure leadership positions, it’s impossible to forget our scars, or the women whose support enabled our rise to such leadership. We lead for them because in many ways, we are them. Our empathy empowers our teams to do more, stay committed and focused.

When leaders understand the difficulty of working from home while self-isolating with children, they can craft policies that support working parents. When they understand firsthand how families can rely on a single person, they don’t question colleagues who need to sign off early for “family matters.” And, when they’ve experienced the immense anxiety that comes along with pregnancy before a pandemic, they’ll remember to regularly check in on their colleague who’s in her third trimester.

Empathy is the antonym of ego, and without it, decisions cannot be made for the greater good. In this highly uncertain time, empathy is one of the few things leaders have control over. When we feel for others we welcome diverse perspectives, our blinders are removed, and we are able to make informed decisions rather than operating in silos. Empathy is emotional intelligence and awareness, and women have those in spades.

Caprino: As a business, Chief is anchored in gathering in-person as a community. How is your community evolving and strengthening despite becoming fully virtual/remote?

Childers: We have always said that we are a community that happens to have a space, not a space that a community is built around. This is so evident right now. The Chief community is truly stronger than ever. Whether they’re crowdsourcing advice via our messaging platform, gathering at virtual Chief events, or calling one for private conversations, Chief members are connecting on a deeply personal and strategic level.

Having access to the nation’s largest and most diverse network of C-suite women is valuable when your business is doing well, but it’s a complete game-changer when you’re facing a global pandemic. There is no coronavirus playbook, but at Chief, members are helping one another write the future real-time.

Each member is contributing her individual expertise—be it financial, organizational, operational, strategic, legal, or relational—and together, the Chief network is ensuring that no leader feels alone, or without a plan.

Whether gathering for a late-night venting session or navigating exceptionally difficult reductions in force, our members are there for each other now more than ever. We could not be more proud to facilitate these relationships. While we thrived when we had a space, this experience proves that our community doesn’t need to be together physically to make an impact.

Overall, this is a powerful time for women in leadership to make lasting change from the top down. Women in leadership have the opportunity to change policies that once ignored the challenges women at all levels faced.

For more information, visit chief.com.

To build more expansive leadership in your career, work with Kathy Caprino in her Career Breakthrough programs and read her new book The Most Powerful You: 7 Bravery-Boosting Paths to Career Bliss.

by Kathy Caprino