‘How do I get hired?’ Early career individuals’ employment strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20856/jnicec.4803Keywords:
COVID, Job seekers, Labour market, USA, Recruitment practices, Personal brandingAbstract
The COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted the employment and career expectations of millions of Americans, including individuals in their early career stage. Instead of the robust labour market that was projected prior to the pandemic, this population faced layoffs, job offers rescinded, unemployment, and underemployment in 2020. Their job hunt strategies amidst the pandemic are an important topic of research inquiry. This qualitative study investigates respondents’ perspectives of online employment sites, social capital, and personal branding via social media as methods to obtain employment information and to get hired. The authors provide practical suggestions to enhance job seekers’ employment searches.
References
Akkermans, J., Richardson, J., Kraimerc, M. L. (2020). The COVID-19 crisis as a career shock: Implications for careers and vocational behavior. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2020.103434
Alexander, E.C., Mader, D., & Mader, F. (2019). Using social media during the hiring process: A comparison between recruiters and job seekers. Journal of Global Scholars in Marketing Science, 29(1), 78-87.
Alhawsawi, M. (2020). Soft accounting skills between employers’ expectations and students’ reality after COVID-19 pandemic. Australian Academy of Accounting and Finance Review, 5(2), 69-76.
Angelucci, M., Angrisani, M., Bennett, D. M., Kapteyn, A., & Schaner, S. (2020). Remote work and the heterogeneous impact of COVID-19 on employment and health. National Bureau of Economic Research, 2279. https://doi:10.3386/w27749
Aucejoa, E. M., French, J., Paola, M., & Ugalde, P. (2020). Coronavirus hurt college student employment. Journal of Public Economics, 191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104271
Beland, L., Brodeur, A., & Wright, T. (2020). The short-term economic consequences of COVID-19: Exposure to disease, remote work and government response. IZA Institute of Labor Economics, 13159. https://www.iza.org/publications/dp/13159/the-short-term-conomicconsequences-of-COVID-19-exposure-to-diseaseremote-work-and-government-response
Berg, B. L. (2001). Qualitative research methods for the social sciences. 4th ed. Allyn and Bacon.
Brown, M., Setren, E., & Topa, G. (2016). Do informal referrals lead to better matches? Evidence from a firm’s employee referral system. Journal of Labor Economics, 34(1), 161-209. https://doi.org/10.1086/682338
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. (2020). Unemployment rate rises to record high 14.7% in April 2020. https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2020/unemployment-rate-rises-to-record-high-14point-7-percent-in-april-2020.htm?view_full
Burgess, S., Sievertsen, H. H. (2020). Schools, skills, and learning: The impact of COVID-19 on education. VOX, CEPR Policy Portal. https://voxeu.org/article/impact-COVID-19-education
Burke, L. (2020). Alternatives to austerity? Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/10/14/college-staff-face-layoffs-some-argue-against-budgetcuts
Busch, P. S. & Davis, S. W. (2018). Inside out personal branding (IOPB): Using Gallup Clifton Strengths Finder 2.0 and 360Reach. Marketing Education Review, 28(3), 187-202. https://doi.org/10.1080/10528008.2017.1367930
Chamarro-Premuzic, T. & Frankiewicz, B. (2019). 6 reasons why higher education needs to be disrupted. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2019
Chen, C.P. (2013). Exploring personal branding on YouTube. Journal of Internet Commerce, 12(4), 332-347. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332861.2013.859041
Chetty, R., Friedman, J. N., Hendren, N., & Stepner. (2020). The economic impacts of COVID-19: Evidence from a new public database built using private sector data. National Bureau of Economic Research. https://www.nber.org/papers/w27431
Chronicle Staff. Chronicle of Higher Education. (2020). Tracking employees laid off or furloughed by colleges.
The Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/were-tracking-employees-laidoff-or-furloughed-by-colleges
Clive, B. (2013). The no nonsense guide to personal branding for career success. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Cooley, D. & Parks-Yancy, R. (2019). The effect of social media on perceived information credibility and decisionmaking. Journal of Internet Commerce. 18(3): 249-269. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332861.2019.1595362
COVID-19 lays waste to entry-level job market and young people will pay the price for years. (May, 2020).
Associated Press. https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/COVID-19-jobs-1.5680550
Deckers, E. & Lacy, K. (2018). Branding yourself: How to use social media to invent or reinvent yourself. Pearson Education.
del Rio-Chanona, R. M., Mealy, P., Pichler, A., Lafond, F., & Farmer, J. D. (2020). Supply and demand shocks in the COVID-19 pandemic: An industry and occupation perspective. COVID Economics, Centre for Economic Policy Research, 6, 65-103.
Driver, S. (2018). Keep it clean: Social media screenings gain in popularity. Business News Daily.
https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/2377-social-media-hiring.html
Economy, P. (2015). 19 interesting hiring statistics you should know. Inc.com.
https://www.inc.com/petereconomy/19-interesting-hiring-statistics-you-shouldknow.html
Forbes Agency Council. (2018). Eight ways to leverage social media as a hiring tool. Forbes.
Gallagher, S. & Palmer, J. (2020). The pandemic pushed universities online. The change was long overdue. HBR.
https://hbr.org/2020/09/the-pandemic-pusheduniversities-online-the-change-was-long-overdue
Gaur, Sanjaya S., Saransomrurtai, C., & Herjanto, H. (2015). Top global firms’ use of brand profile pages on SNS for marketing communication. Journal of Internet Commerce, 14(3), 316-340. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332861.2015.1045287
Granovetter, M. (1973). The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78.
Hadlock, C. J. & Pierce, J. R. (in press). Hiring your friends: Evidence from the market for financial economists. Industrial and Labor Relations Review.
Hess, A. (2020). New college grads are having their job offers rescinded. CNBC.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/22/new-college-grads-are-having-theirjob-offers-rescinded.html
Ingold, P.V. & Langer. M. Resumé = resumé? The effects of blockchain, social media, and classical resumés on resumé fraud and applicant reactions to resumés. Computers in Human Behavior, 114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106573
Jeske, D. & Schultz, K. (2016). Using social media content for screening in recruitment and selection: pros and cons. Work, Employment and Society, 30(3), 535-546. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017015613746
Joyce, S. P. & Smith-Proulx, L. (2016). How the unemployed can leverage LinkedIn. Career Planning and Adult Development Journal, 32(2).
Landers, R. N. & Schmidt, G. B. (2016). Social media in employee selection and recruitment theory, practice, and current challenges. Switzerland, Springer International Publishing.
Lam, H. (2016). Social media dilemmas in the employment context. Employee Relations, 38(3), 420- 437.
https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-04-2015-0072
Lebowitz, S. & De Luce. (2019). 27 surprising things that affect whether you get hired after a job interview. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/surprising-things-that-affect-whether-you-gethired-2016-4
Lee, J. W. & Cavanaugh, T. (2016). Building your brand: The integration of infographic resumé as student self-analysis tools and self-branding resources. Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education, 18, 61-68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhlste.2016.03.001
Lin, N. (2001). Social capital: A theory of social structure and action. Harvard University Press.
Marr, J.C., & Cable, D. (2014). Do interviewers sell themselves short? The effect of selling orientation on interviewers’ judgments. Academy of Management Journal, 57, 624-651. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2011.0504
McCabe, M. B. (2017). Social media marketing strategies for career advancement: An analysis of LinkedIn. Journal of Business and Behavioral Sciences, 29(1), 85-99.
McDonald. S., Demarin, A., Lawhoren, J. & Wilcox, A. (2019). Black holes and purple squirrels: A tale of two online labor markets. Research in the Sociology of Work, 33, 93-120.
McDonald, S. (2015). Network effects across the earnings distribution: Visible and invisible job finding assistance in the labor market. Social Science Research, 49(1), 299-313.
Mccool, L. B. (2019). Next-gen résumés: A case study of using transmedia storytelling to create personal branding on LinkedIn. Technical Communication, 66(3), 230-243.
McCorkle, D. & Payan, J. (2017). Using Twitter in the marketing and advertising classroom to develop skills for social media marketing and personal branding.
Journal of Advertising Education, 21(1), 33-43. htps://doi.org/10.1177/109804821702100107
McLarnon, M., Rothsten, M. G., & King, G. (2020). Resiliency, self-regulation, and reemployment after job loss. Journal of Employment Counseling, 57(3), 115-129. https://doi.org/10.1002/joec.12149
Montoya, P. & Vandehey, T. (2003) The brand called you: The ultimate brand-building and business development handbook to transform anyone into an indispensable personal brand. Personal Branding Press
Parker, C. (2020). COVID-19 educational attainment and the impact on American workers. Monthly Labor Review, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2020/beyond-bls/COVID-19-educationalattainment-and-the-impact-on-american-workers.htm
Parker, K., Minkin, R., & Bennett. (2020). Economic fallout from COVID-19 continues to hit lower-income Americans the hardest. Pew Research Centre: Social & Demographic Trends. https://www.pewresearch.org/socialtrends/2020/09/24/economic-fallout-from-COVID-19-continues-to-hit-lower-income-Americansthe-hardest/
Parks-Yancy, R. 2010. Equal work, unequal careers: African-Americans in the workforce. FirstForumPress.
Parks-Yancy, R. (2012). Interactions into opportunities: Career management for low income, African-American college students. Journal of College Student Development, 53(4), 510-523. https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2012.0052
Parks-Yancy, R. & Cooley, D. 2018. Who gets the Job? First generation college students’ perceptions of employer screening methods. Journal of Education for Business. 1(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2017.1409691
Perrin, A. & Anderson, M. (2019). Share of U.S. adults using social media including Facebook is mostly unchanged since 2018. Pew Research Centre. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/04/10/share-ofu-s-adults-using-social-media-including-facebook-ismostly-unchanged-since-2018/
Pieper, J.R., Greenwald, J. M., & Schlachter, S. D. (2018). Motivating employee referrals: The interactive effects of the referral bonus, perceived risk in referring, and affective commitment. Human Resource Management, 57(5), 1159-1174. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21895
Portes, A. (1998). Social capital: Its origins and applications in modern sociology. Annual Review of Sociology, 24, 1-24.
Rangarajana, D., Gelbb, B. & Vandaveerb, A. (2017). Strategic personal branding-And how it pays off. Business Horizons, 60(5), 657-666. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2017.05.009
Reidy, T. (2020). Recruitment is on hold for students graduating into the COVID-19 recession. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/apr/10/recruitment-is-on-hold-the-students-graduating-intothe-COVID-19-recession
Riklan, M. (2014). Resumes and portfolios for new graduates: How to showcase potential. Career Planning and Adult Development Journal, 30(2).
Rivera, L.A. (2015). Go with your gut: Emotion and evaluation in job interviews. American Journal of Sociology, 120, 1339-1389. https://doi.org/10.1086/681214
Roulin, N., Bangerter, A., & Levashina, J. (2014). Interviewers’ perceptions of impression management in employment interviews. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 29, 141-163. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMP-10-2012-0295
Sameen, S. & Cornelius, S. (2015). Social networking sites and hiring: How social media profiles influence hiring decisions. Journal of Business Studies, 7(1), 27-35.
Schlachter, S. D., & Pieper, J. R. (2019). Employee referral hiring in organizations: An integrative conceptual review, model, and agenda for future research. Journal of Applied Psychology, 104(11), 1325–1346. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000412
Scott, S.E., Kraimer, M., & Liden, R. 2017. A social capital theory of career success. Academy of Management Journal, 44(2). https://doi.org/10.5465/3069452
Seasonally adjusted monthly employment rate the U.S. (March, 2021). Statista. https://www.statista.
com/statistics/273909/seasonally-adjusted-monthlyunemployment-rate-in-the-us/
Shastri, D. (2020). Campuses shuttered, but bills keep coming for laid off student workers. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/education/2020/04/06/campuses-shuttered-but-billskeep-coming-laid-off-student-workers/5078989002/
Shepherd, I. (2005) From cattle and coke to Charlie: meeting the challenge of self marketing and personal branding. Journal of Marketing Management, 21(5-6), 589-606. SHRM. (2016). Screening and evaluating candidates. https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/toolkits/pages/screeningandevaluatingcandidates.aspx
Strathdee, R. (2001). Changes in social capital and school-to-work transitions. Work, Employment and Society, 15(2), 311-326. https://doi.org/10.1177/09500170122118977
Vallas, S. P. & Christin, A. (2017). Work and identity in an era of precarious employment: How workers respond to “personal branding” discourse. Work and Occupations, 45(1), 3-37. https://doi.org/10.1177/0730888417735662
Ward, C. & Yates, D. (2013). Personal branding and e-professionalism. Journal of Service Science, 6(1), 101-104, https://doi.org/10.19030/jss.v6i1
Wetsch, L. R. (2012). A personal branding assignment using social media. Journal of Advertising Education, 16(1), -36. https://doi.org/10.1177/109804821201600106
Zakarda, A. (2012). Concepts and constructs for personal branding: An exploratory literature review approach. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1994522
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 1. In submitting an article, the Author hereby grants to NICEC the exclusive first publication right to the paper submitted by him / her for inclusion in the publication named above and the non-exclusive rights thereafter to publish and authorise the publication of all articles and all parts, adaptations and abridgements thereof in all forms and media throughout the world. 2. In consideration for the above grant of rights, and subject to delivery of acceptable material, NICEC hereby undertakes to prepare for publication and publish the paper unless prevented by circumstances beyond its control. 3. The Author agrees that NICEC may make minor changes to areas such as formatting, spelling, referencing, layout or punctuation, to ensure quality and uniformity of style. 4. NICEC agrees that the Author may share the final published PDF of their article (e.g. publication to the Author’s web profile, or institutional repository). 5. The Author warrants to NICEC that in respect of the paper submitted: (i) it does not infringe any existing copyright or licence; (ii) except where the Author, at the time of submission of the paper, notifies NICEC, the paper is original; (iii) the Author has the full power to make this assignment and that this assignment does not infringe the rights or licence of any other person, and that where there a co-author, the co-author also fully agrees to the terms in this document; (iv) the paper contains nothing defamatory or otherwise unlawful and no information has been obtained in contravention of legislation currently in force (v) submission of the paper demonstrates acceptance of all these conditions.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.