By Chathurika Jayawardana, Founder, Career Kit
First and foremost, be honest about it. Employers are aware that job loss during this pandemic is due to downsizing/retrenchment resulting from business loss. If you are productive during the time-off, it’s understood that there has not been a decline of career interest nor has there been a career failure.
Maintain and update your online presence on LinkedIn. List your skills inventory, focus on your accomplishments that will be valuable for the next job role. All of this will tone down any negative effects of an employment gap.
Pro Tip:
On your LinkedIn profile, under the experience section, add a new work experience and type the company name as 'The Coronavirus Job Gap' and it will automatically appear as a suggestion. After putting it as your company, mention the title as ‘Active Job Seeker’ or ‘Seeking for Opportunities’ or anything appropriate to your context.
In the description, list the initiatives you took to be proactive regardless of your job loss. Mention any online courses pursued, new technical skills gained, projects you volunteered for, community engagements, creativities made, freelance jobs worked on, your support with online schooling, initiatives taken for self-discovery, etc. Then link up the competencies gained to the value you can offer in your next job role.
The Coronavirus Job Gap is a company page on LinkedIn that has been created to show your efficiency despite your employment gap. Admin is unknown. Read more about it on the ‘About’ tab of the page.
Check how other LinkedIn users have effectively mitigated the adverse effects due to the employment gap caused by the Corona Virus.
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