I’m reading about more layoffs and furloughs every day. The longer the quarantines go on, the more significant the economic impact will be. The ripple effects will spread far and wide.

Has the pandemic negatively impacted your job? If so, a “career pivot” may be necessary if things don’t turn around soon.

Are you ready to make a transition to another company, profession, or industry (i.e., a pivot) when your financial cushion runs out? What is your backup plan?

Perhaps the quarantine hasn’t affected your company, job, or business at all. For you, it is business as usual.

You may have even discovered that you are busier than ever, and your business is booming because of the products or services that you provide. If so, reach out to those who have been impacted and lost their jobs or businesses.

Become a haven for people to weather this economic storm. Employ those in need.

Preparing to pivot

However, if you have already been impacted — or you expect that you will be — you may need to adapt to make ends meet for the rest of this year or longer.

• Small pivot - Find a new job with an employer that is still hiring this year.

• Medium pivot - Find a new remote job with an employer who has embraced fully-distributed work-from-home teams.

• Large pivot - Create a new online business or move your existing business onto the internet, so that you can work remotely with customers and clients around the world.

• Massive pivot - Change professions entirely — or carve out a piece of your job — to find work in a different industry.

The size of your pivot depends on what you do for a living, how deeply your job or business has been impacted, and how serious you are about doing whatever it takes to survive and thrive in this economic downturn.

Small pivot

Yes, many employers are still hiring. In some cases, the quarantine has not impacted how a company runs its business and sells to customers and clients.

For example, I provide my leadership coaching and career consulting to my clients 100% remote. That was a very intentional business strategy decision that I made over four years ago, which I talked about in this podcast episode.

I collaborate with my clients using online tools and services, communicate via Slack and in my new career community, and have live video chats and phone calls. The quarantine hasn’t affected me or my business.

In other cases, the quarantine has increased the demand for a company’s products and services. They can’t keep up and have accelerated their hiring. If you work in a profession that is in demand in these industries, you can find a new job with them.

For example (from Andrew Seaman’s list on LinkedIn):

• Instacart says it’s looking to hire 300,000 contract workers over the next three months.

• Walmart announced that it will hire 150,000 workers for its distribution and fulfillment centers.

• Amazon says it’s looking to hire 100,000 new workers for its fulfillment centers and delivery network.

• CVS Health is hiring 50,000 employees to serve in various capacities across its business.

• Dollar General says it's looking to add 50,000 employees by the end of April.

• Ace Hardware is hiring 30,000 people to work in its stores nationwide.

• Pizza Hut is hiring 30,000 permanent employees to serve as drivers, shift leaders, cooks, and managers.

• Lowe’s is hiring 30,000 employees to meet the demand created by the coronavirus.

• Dollar Tree, which is also the parent company of Family Dollar, is hiring 25,000 workers for its stores and distribution centers.

• Walgreens is hiring 25,000 employees for permanent and temporary roles.

• Papa John's is hiring 20,000 workers to meet demand.

• 7-Eleven is hiring up to 20,000 employees due to increased demand.

• Kroger is looking to hire an additional 20,000 workers across the U.S.

• Chewy is hiring 10,000 people to help it meet increased demand.

• Domino’s is hiring up to 10,000 employees across the country for various roles inside the company.

• Target is hiring nearly 10,000 employees for its operations across the country.

• PepsiCo says it plans to hire 6,000 employees over the coming months.

• Tractor Supply Company is hiring more than 5,000 people at its stores and distribution centers.

• Rite Aid is hiring 5,000 people to work in their stores and distribution centers.

• Big Lots is hiring 5,000 people to help meet increased demand.

• Outschool is looking to hire 5,000 teachers to start offering online classes.

• CommonSpirit Health is hiring for more than 2,200 positions.

• Salesforce is hiring for more than 2,000 positions.

• Love's Travel Centers and Country Stores is hiring more than 2,000 people to meet demand.

• Takeda, a large pharmaceutical company, is hiring for 2,000 positions.

• UCHealth is hiring people to fill more than 1,200 positions.

• Better.com is hiring 1,000 employees — with a focus on hospitality employees.

• Success Academy Charter Schools plan to fill about 1,000 full-time positions in New York City.

• Publix Super Markets is hiring "thousands" of workers to meet increased demand.

• Safeway is hiring thousands of workers due to the demand created by the virus.

• Shipt is hiring "thousands" of people across the country.

• Veeva Systems is hiring people for more than 800 positions.

• KLA is hiring workers for 700 roles.

• TTEC is hiring people to fill more than 400 roles.

• DocuSign is hiring people for over 400 positions.

• Akamai is hiring for more than 350 positions.

• FreshDirect is hiring 350 people to support their services.

• Premise Health is hiring more than 300 people to fill open roles.

• Houston Methodist is hiring 250 health care workers.

• Cargill is hiring for an unknown number of positions.

• NetApp is looking to fill an unknown number of positions.

• Koch Industries is hiring people for an unknown number of positions.

• ServiceNow is hiring for an unknown number of positions.

• The U.S. Census is hiring an unknown number of employees.

• BJ's Wholesale Club is hiring an unknown number of employees.

• Blue Apron is looking to hire an unknown number of employees in New Jersey and California.

• Land O’Lakes is looking to hire an unknown number of workers to meet increased demand.

• Support.com is hiring an unknown number of workers for remote positions.

• SpaceX is hiring an unknown number of workers as it looks to ramp up production of its Starships.

Search the LinkedIn feed using the hashtag “hiringnow” to see posts from companies that are recruiting: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/hashtag/hiringnow/

Medium pivot

If you have already lost your job and can’t find a local company that is hiring, then it might be time for a slightly larger pivot to remote work.

A growing number of employers are fully embracing work-from-home teams. They are aware of the numerous benefits and cost savings.

Remote work is the future. Companies that understand it will survive. Companies that refuse will slowly die out.

Even businesses that must have a physical storefront or presence (e.g., coffee shops, restaurants, stylists, massage therapists, mechanics, plumbers) can find ways to generate additional revenue streams online. I’ll talk more about this in the Massive Pivot section later.

So, where do you find these companies that are hiring remote employees?

• Start by searching for remote and work from home jobs on traditional job sites like Indeed.

• Use services that are focused explicitly on remote jobs, like Remote.co and FlexJobs.

• Explore remote jobs on LinkedIn (over 49,000 remote jobs when I last checked).

• Search social media (e.g., Twitter) and LinkedIn for remote job postings in their feeds.

• Visit the careers pages for companies that are champions for remote work (e.g., Automattic, GitHub, Zapier).

• Visit the careers pages for any company you find interesting that should be able to let employees work from home. Those that are still hiring are transitioning more roles to be fully remote.

• Connect with your professional network to find out who is hiring and which jobs can be performed from home.

Large pivot

If you own a small business that has been forced to shut down, you’ve lost customers, or you have experienced a significant drop in sales, you must consider moving part of your business online. This requires some creativity to figure out how to do that, but it is often more realistic than you might think.

For example:

• If you own a fitness gym and you’ve shut your doors, immediately spin up an online community and provide online workouts, exercise sessions, one-on-one training, etc. You may discover that your business will grow even larger, once you realize that there is an entire world of clients that can sign up online (not just the people in your local community). I’m watching more and more fitness professionals creating online services and marketing them to their followers (e.g., on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook).

• If you own a coffee shop that has roasting equipment, keep selling your beans and other merchandise online. My favorite local coffee house is doing this right now.

• If you sell physical merchandise, spin up an online store on Shopify, Etsy, eBay Stores, etc. and ship products to customers. For example, I just purchased a print from an artist last night, and he is shipping it to my home.

• If you are a mechanic, veterinarian, electrician, doctor, plumber, lawyer, accountant, appliance repair expert, tech executive, industry specialist, etc., then you are probably saying, “How in the world can I put what I do online? I have to perform my job or services in person.” However, there are online services where you can answer customer’s questions and get paid for your knowledge and expertise (e.g., JustAnswer, Dialectica, GLG, Guidepoint). Imagine getting paid for your wisdom. Pretty cool!

If you were an employee but lost your job or fear that you will, then it’s time to create a new online business. This will allow you to work remotely with customers and clients, potentially from around the world.

For people who work in Tech (e.g., engineers, designers), this can be a surprisingly fast and easy process. When I first went into consulting, I had my first client before I had my domain or website. I had to think on my feet and come up with my services and pricing on the fly to land a client right then and there in a meeting.

It may require more planning to move other types of occupations online, but people are doing it more than you think. They create a simple online presence, figure out how to offer their services to clients directly, and decide on their pricing model.

For example, some professionals start selling their knowledge and expertise through online courses. My favorite service is Podia. They make it easy to build an elegant storefront, create courses and memberships, and start selling immediately.

Massive pivot

Finally, in some cases, you must make a drastic change to your career to survive and thrive. You may need to change professions entirely or deconstruct your job and reconstruct your knowledge, skills, and experience into an entirely new industry.

I did this over four years ago, long before the current pandemic hit. I left my profession (VP of Product) and industry (Silicon Valley Tech) to create my own business doing something completely different. I became a leadership coach and career advisor.

I took parts of my past job (e.g., mentoring my team, hiring talent) and different components of my skills and experience to create a new beginning. I did this because I wanted the freedom that an Invincible Career could give me (e.g., living where I wanted to live and working remotely).

I know that the thought of changing professions is overwhelming. But, making a pivot this massive could mean that you survive this chaos and economic uncertainty. It is possible, and other people have successfully made a significant career change like this.

I did.

You can too, if that is what it takes to survive.

I’m here to support you. My community is available to help you too.

Let me know how I can help

If you need some help thinking through your next career move, let me know! You can schedule a complimentary call to discuss it with me and get my advice.

You can also ask a question in the comments on this post online, join my Facebook group, or apply to join my new career masterminds community. It’s up to you!

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