A Guide to Being Helpful to Those Who are Job Searching

Searching for a job isn’t always a solo sport. With today’s limited job market overwhelmed by the growing numbers of job seekers, nowadays, it takes more than filling out an application on a job board to land a role. 

 

Job seekers often rely on their network to help them source jobs, coach them through an interview, and advocate for them to have a role on a team. This network includes past work colleagues, alumni, mentors, industry peers, friends, and family. For those who are fortunate to have jobs, you may see a spike in email outreach from peers who may need your help navigating a pandemic as a job seeker. Some people may be clear about what they need your assistance with, while others won’t know the first step towards getting back on the market. While there is a lot of content out there to help job seekers, those of us who are in the network of a job seeker should learn how to be a valuable resource. 

 

Today’s job seeker may reach out to you, asking to learn more about your career, a referral, or recommendation for landing a job at a particular company. Here are some scenarios and ways to help job seekers who need specific resources you may be able to provide:

 

What it means for a job seeker to want to learn more about your career? 

This is when new graduates or professionals looking to pivot industries will reach out to “pick your brain.” They want to know what it takes to have a career like yours or work for the company you work for. Here’s what job seekers are expecting:

 

• Job seekers want to understand your trajectory
• They want to know about the skill sets you have that make you successful in your role
• They want to understand how to pivot into that industry
• Job seekers want to identify if that career is right for them

 

Be able to offer this job seeker professional development tools and tips to help them understand your role better. Share how the job seeker can find their own avenues for education to gain those skill sets to enter that career or industry. Lastly, discover what skill sets the job seeker has and help them identify how some can transfer. Offer to look over their resume and introduce them to a colleague who may work at a particular company of the job seekers’ interest and have some openings on their team.

 

What it means when job seekers ask for a referral?

Depending on the level of your relationship with the person who is asking for the referral, the expectations will be different. Be willing, to be honest about what referrals look like on your end and the level of help you will be giving. 

 

• If they cold-emailed you, they are just hoping you could pass their resume along to the right hiring manager
• If you know them casually, they want you to pass their resume along but also submit them to your employers Applicant Tracking System (ATS)
• If you have a personal or professional relationship, they want you to recommend them and to advocate for them

 

Job seekers will often send introductory emails to hiring managers or a targeted employee at a company in hopes that their resume will be considered through the crowd of job applicants in the ATS. Job seekers are only hoping that they emailed the appropriate decision-maker to land a job interview, and if they missed the mark, they expect the person will forward their email to the right contact. 

 

For job seekers that you causally know, they are hoping they can add your name to their application in the ATS or have you submit their application as a referral through the system or pass their resume along to the right contact. You could take it a step further by introducing them to a hiring manager or offer tips on how to land a job at your company.

 

Lastly, a job seeker that is a former co-worker or who you are friends with that reaches out to you is expecting more from you than to casually pass their resume along or flag their application in the ATS. What they are hoping you do is to advocate for them. That means finding the right hiring manager and actively engaging and telling them why your friend would make an excellent fit for the company and team. That means you not only forward the email, but you verbally have a conversation with the hiring manager to advocate for them to be in that role. If you aren’t doing this for people, consider friends or great former co-workers, ask yourself why? Is it something about their work ethic or experience that concerns you? Be honest with the job seeker on what you can do in terms of help and what concerns you may have with advocating for them beyond the minimal effort. 

 

How to be helpful when a job seeker shares that their job search is taking longer than expected?

 

There comes the point in a job seekers’ career that the only real help you can provide is the immediate connection to someone who is hiring at that moment. It’s a tough job market, and it may take a longer time to land a role, but with a little motivation and inspiration, you can keep the job seekers’ spirits up. 

 

• Please refrain from sending them links to job posts
• Offer to look at a resume
• Offer to look into your network to find someone they can connect with from a particular company

 

When the job search becomes a journey, what job seekers need most is a listening ear and solutions. Let them vent and share with you what their process has been. Refrain from judging them and listen. Ask them to take you through their process for applying. If you hear some missing steps, offer some suggestions for a different approach. Depending on how long the job seeker has been at it, they may have tried every method, piece of advice or tip they could find. Therefore spending an hour sending them links to random jobs to apply is not helpful. What they need is access to someone who is hiring for the role they want. If you can’t provide that, offer to look into your network to connect them with someone. If the job search hasn’t been as long, try sending links to articles that can help them navigate specific issues instead of sending them jobs. 

 

Job seekers can often lose friends during this time in their lives through self-isolation. “Friends” sometimes take a step back from those who are drowning in a job search by ghosting them leaving them to feel abandoned. Check-in with a job seeker to see how they are doing. Offer them a minute to step away from the computer for some enjoyment. You can do this by planning an exercise class together. Other classes that can help break up a job seekers’ day and put a smile on their face could be a cooking class, book club, or paint and sip. Plan a Netflix watch party or set up a call to talk about your favorite TV series. Find a way to help your job seeker escape if only just an hour to laugh and find some joy.