What if your plans for the summer or post-graduation were cancelled, delayed or changed? Aside from the disappointment and loss of a good opportunity that you were looking forward to, you now have the added task of figuring out how you are going to spend your time in the coming months.
What are your options at this point?
Return to the internship/job search
Search strategies at this time should include increasing networking efforts and keeping on top of trends and noticing where the needs are. Some resources for doing this include:
- Social media sites are doing some crowdsourcing about who is hiring, such as these:
- Who’s Hiring Right Now – Andrew Seaman https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/heres-whos-hiring-right-now-andrew-seaman/
- 2020 Internship Hiring Status COVID 19 https://github.com/gcreddy42/hiring2020
- Business News resources such as Hoover’s Online and Wall St. Journal (check out all your free subscriptions through Bertrand Library) and Philadelphia Business Journal for all major cities (use Find a City once you select it on my Career Center in my Bucknell). Wall Street Journal also has a podcast with episodes about trends with companies and hiring.
- Alumni – can be a great source of trends and what is happening in their company and industry. They may be interested in hearing how your experience is going as well! Talk to those who graduated or attended in 2008 and 2001 to hear how they made it through tough economic times while searching.
- Think about targeting the industries, sectors and functions that are in demand during this crisis – Customer Service, Government, Biotech, Pharma, Nonprofits, Telecommunications, Technology and Consumer Products Supply & Logistics.
Think about other options for summer experiences
If an employer asks, what do you want to say you did with this time? How could you use this time to help you progress in your career development?
- Making Money – look to the essential services (grocery stories, healthcare) and temp agencies for temporary work.
- Volunteering/Giving Back to the Community – what organizations and non-profits in your community or the larger global community need help – what skills can you contribute?
- Learning new skills – taking online classes, using LinkedIn Learning (subscription through Bucknell), check out the online resources of your local library,
- Networking and Shadowing Experiences – reach out to your own personal networks and the Bucknell alumni, have conversations, pitch projects and skills you can contribute when appropriate. When life is no longer as virtual, inquire about shadowing options.
Thanks to our career counselor/coach Sarah Bell for these tips and suggestions. If you’d like to make an appointment to discuss more strategies for outreach (or anything career-related!), you can visit this page (myBucknell login required).