Take a class, get a mentor, volunteer, most importantly build your skills!

Since Covid-19 lockdowns and quarantines began in the US in March, many of my clients have decided to hit the pause button on their return to school. Many of them cite the lack of engagement they get through online instruction as just not being worth it. In the words of one of my clients, “I really feel like the whole thing is a waste of time. I am the type of student who really likes to engage in conversations and discourse with my professors and not being able to do this makes my decision easy.”

While you may not feel ready to enter the workforce and the pandemic has restricted a lot of travel, there are other options that will enable you to have an enriching experience and build your skills.

During my career as a professional recruiter, I reviewed lots of resumes of people hit hard by the financial crisis of 2008. Many were recent grads where it took months for them to find a job, resulting in large gaps on their resumes. In this case, corporate recruiters and hiring managers made allowances when reviewing candidate’s resumes, we were understanding when we saw a large gap. This pandemic is certainly cause for an allowance. At the same time, during this time, there were candidates who stood out because of the work they did while they were looking for a job. They did not have a gap on their resume because they were not idle. Their resumes reflected volunteer work, online course work, some even decided to start their own ventures.

Below is a list of five things I recommend my clients do when they are searching for a job to enhance their skills and build their resume, but the information also applies to those who have decided to take a semester (or year) off. In the end, it matters less what you actually choose to do, as long as puts you in a stronger position to land the job you want.

1. Complete a virtual internship 

Lots of companies have shifted their regular internships (both paid and unpaid) online — giving more students the opportunity to apply, even if they don’t live in the same place where the company is based. 

I have two clients who are based in Connecticut and have recently landed opportunities with organizations based on the West Coast. Many firms are considering candidates who are located in a different state due to Covid-19, so it is a good time to start applying to roles out of state, that you might not have considered.

You can search for remote internships on job search sites such as Indeed and Glassdoor, or on dedicated internship sites such as Chegg Internships and Virtual Internships.

2. Volunteer

Volunteer work can be both enriching and skills building. One of my clients leveraged a part-time volunteer job to land a social media marketing job. She strategically used the time at the organization to offer her expertise in social media and then put that on her resume. Smart! Every community has volunteer options that you can do while living, working or studying at home and many new opportunities are available that are purely online. Several websites can connect you to local groups, including Idealist, All for Good and VolunteerMatch. Another way is to reach out directly to a senior person at the organization telling them why you are interested in helping them and what you can commit to in terms of time.

3. Start Something!

For some people who have always wanted to start something, now is the time! One of my clients is majoring in Arts Administration and Playwriting. At the beginning of this year, she found an awesome internship at a prestigious entertainment company reading scripts and then Covid-19 hit. She has decided to take the semester off and during this time she is lining up an online internship she got through diligent networking and on top of this, she has decided to start her own scriptwriting group. She is building a network of other writers who focus on her genre and creating an online forum where they critique each other’s scripts and invite guest playwrights to give talks. This is a great example of someone who is pushing forward to continue to build her skills. In the end, she will have some great experiences to put on her resume.

4. Take an online course

As much as the thought of distance learning might make you cringe, there are some major differences between taking an online course or a course through a university that gets high marks in their online platforms, and having ALL of your college learning experience online.

If you decide not to go back to school for a semester or year, you can still take courses at your local community college, or through a number of universities or organizations online. Depending on your budget and how much structure you prefer will be important things to consider. Again, a self-paced fully online course with no professor is very different from an official course taken through a university with weekly lectures, assignments, deadlines and assessments. 

You can find free courses through sites like Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, Khan Academy and edX. And find paid individual classes or programs through sites like SkillShare and Udemy, or through many universities.

5. Join a Community Service or Political Organization

The AmeriCorps VISTA program often seen as the domestic Peace Corps, is a network of national service programs in the US that provide full or part-time paid opportunities to address community needs, offered by a network of nonprofit, community organizations and public agencies to fill roles in the fields of education, public safety, environmental protection, healthcare, preparing for disasters and, now, fighting COVID-19. 

One of my clients completed a VISTA fellowship program through Brown University where she worked with one of their community partners. She found the experience incredibly enriching. You can find out more about this program here.

In an article by Alison DeNisco Rayome in C|NET, “More AmeriCorp opportunities may become available: In June 2020, several senators introduced the Cultivating Opportunity and Response to the Pandemic through Service (CORPS) Act, which would increase the number of AmeriCorp positions to 150,000 this year and raise stipends, in efforts to fight COVID-19.  Other options include Service Year Alliance, a nonprofit organization that connects students with paid service work in areas including COVID-19 response, environmentalism, community development, education and healthcare. If you’re politically minded, check out Election 2020 Gap Year, which connects students with ways to become volunteers or interns for political campaigns.”

So you can see there are opportunities popping up during this challenging time. Students and recent grads have options. You can also try doing a few of these things at once and see which one blossoms!