Anybody who suddenly finds themselves out of work will suffer a range of emotions. And one of them will almost certainly be panic, what can they do for the rest of their career?

Many will find themselves in this situation because their sector has been very badly hit by the current crisis. Completely understandable, but if you have always worked in the sector, how can you find work?

The fact is that all of us have skills that are transferable to other jobs. But you might not recognise it.

Perhaps you have been working in the hospitality industry – good with people, used to working long hours. Who needs those other skills?

Or you have been working in a highly specialised engineering environment, what else can you do?

I suppose there are two parts to the answer. First of all, are you looking for a permanent solution, or something that will get you by until we get through this crisis? Because many of the industries that are currently decimated will surely come back in some form or another in two or three years time, perhaps even sooner than that.

And just as many sectors are closing down, others are opening up. You probably do not need reminding that delivery drivers are in greater demand than ever. Or that, with the explosion of green energy projects around, that sector needs engineers, technicians and technical experts like never before.

Or with Brexit on the horizon, the health service and even the teaching profession will be running short of new recruits at some stage next year.

And your transferable skills, whether they are technical, whether they are people skills or your natural competitiveness are equally at home in other industries and other sectors.

And the key skills that most of us have that employers really want are reliability, intelligence and trustworthiness. If they can find the people with the right attitude, they can train in their technical skills. Never underestimate your ability to do a job properly and conscientiously. It is a great starting point for any recruiter.

Writing to employers blind in the current market might seem like a waste of time. When they are not recruiting, why bother? Except that you might hit them at the right time, just before they start to think about recruitment, just as they are about to spend money.

Understand that every recruiter wants to solve a problem. In the current market, where margins are tight and where organisations need to adapt rapidly, it is even more important that jobseekers understand what potential employers’ problems are.

We often hear of people making thousands of applications. The very fact that they are able to do so without hitting home means that their approach is not working. 

So get more targeted. You need to do some research, find out what they do, what their problem are, who you know who works there – it might mean much more work in making each application, but if it is 10, 15 or even 20 times more effective, then the effort is worthwhile.

Perhaps you are in marketing. Study how the company presents themselves, how they communicate through social media, through the press. What you can find out about them on Google. Normally the problems are quite obvious to someone experienced in marketing. Rather than suggest a solution to their problem, explain how you have managed a similar problem and generated results.

Supposing you are an engineer and you see through reviews that they have a poor reputation for aftersales and customer service. Explain how you have corrected such problems in your career and the results you were able to produce. 

Maybe the results are not easily visible publicly, perhaps you have to contact people through LinkedIn who work for the organisation. Possibly you need to reach out through networks and colleagues to find out what companies do wrong. 

But if you find out organisations problems before you approach them, then you can present yourself as someone who can cure the problem. Most organisations know what issues they have, many simply do not know how to solve them. 

Show them you are the one. 

If you are unfortunate enough to be made redundant or find yourself without a job, a sense of panic can set in quite quickly.

So many people feel that being out of work marks them down as unemployable. It doesn’t, even at the height of the boom when it is difficult to imagine why people would be out of work, there are plenty of employers needing people and very few around.

In the current situation, however, nobody is going to blame an individual who finds themselves on the wrong side of coronavirus.

Now we know that some employers in more normal times will rather lazily assume anyone out of work as partly to blame, but today unemployment is on the rise and your individual circumstances are simply not unusual.

The only way that it can possibly affect your future employment prospects is if it matters to you. If you feel it is a problem, then that will come across to employers. But if you think that your situation is no different to many others and it is not something to dwell on, then it will not influence your chances.

So rather than concentrate on your present predicament, concentrate instead on a targeted job search, a properly prepared CV and understanding how to interview properly, especially online. Those things will make a big difference.

Or call us.

Good luck!